Job: Performing arts director, Mount Bethel Elementary School, east Cobb County

What I do: If all the world is a stage, Blake Cooper owns a small corner of it. Mount Bethel Elementary's director of performing arts is unusual in that he is -- as far as he knows -- the only person teaching drama in an elementary school in Cobb County.

KARL RITZLER/Special Blake Cooper and students at Mount Bethel Elementary School act out a poem about a cat in the school's drama room. Cooper says that seeing students blossom and gain confidence is the best part of his job.

Every day, he said, he helps kindergartners through fifth-graders "build confidence through performance" with drama techniques that include movement, poetry and puppets. Performances give the children the confidence to speak in front of groups -- a skill that is important for future businesspeople or lawyers as well as actors -- and even to raise their hands in class.

Shy students, after getting on stage and delivering great performances, gain self-confidence, Cooper said. "They go out on a limb and can say, 'I can do that,' " he said. "Acting is pretending, and kids are great at that."

Cooper, 24, also produces a daily news program with fourth-graders on the school's closed-circuit television system, and he runs a separate fee-based after-school program that produces two musicals a year with second- through fifth-graders. "We step it up a notch" from typical elementary-school plays, he said.

The children aren't graded, because the classes are part of the foundation's program, but they learn "how creative they can become," Cooper said.

What got me interested in this: "I've been involved in theater since I was 4," Cooper said. He had parts in various musical productions at a nearby college when his family lived in Virginia, including a role as a von Trapp family member in a production of "The Sound of Music."

He continued as a musical theater major at a performing arts high school in Kentucky and appeared as an extra in movies and television shows when he lived near Los Angeles. He's even made a few commercials.

KARL RITZLER/Special Cooper

Cooper started at Mount Bethel as a substitute teacher -- a day job to earn money while he performed country music. After half a year, the school's foundation offered him the job as performing arts director.

Best part of my job: "Seeing kids improve on and off the stage," he said. "Seeing them grow up and learn life lessons."

Most challenging part: "The schedule," he said. "There is so much going on, I could do this seven days a week. . . . It's finding time to fit everything in." He sees each class for 45 minutes in the school's drama room, and, in that time, "every kid is on stage performing."

What people don't know about my job: His job is funded by the school's foundation, not like a regular teacher in the school district. In addition to Cooper, the parent-funded foundation pays for part-time science and technology instructors. He said other districts have drama teachers in magnet elementary schools.

What keeps me going: "The kids, the smiles, the hugs." He said some of his students call him "Mr. C" and high-five him in the hallway. In addition, Cooper said, he is pleased to be working in a good school with talented teachers. "It's a team effort. Everyone at school works together for the common good."

Preparation needed for this job: "Passion," he said. You also have to love the theater and have acting skills. In his classes, Cooper said, he concentrates on building the students' self-esteem and confidence.

" 'Professional' is my favorite word," he said, and he uses it to remind his students that that is the attitude they should have toward the theater -- and in their classes.