Television Production teacher Mark Raines has been recognized on the state and national level for teaching excellence. Raines was named the 2008 National Outstanding New Career and Technical Teacher of the Year by the Association for Career and Technical Education, which previously named Raines the 2007 Region II New Career and Technical Teacher of the Year and the 2006 Alabama New Career and Technical Teacher of the Year. He was one of only ten beginning teachers in the nation to receive the 2002 Radio Shack National Teacher Award and The USA Today listed Raines among 40 teachers in the nation honored in their 2005 All-USA Teacher Team program.
In 2003, Raines was one of 50 teachers from seven states to be selected to participate in the Toyota International Teacher Program. The program sends teachers to Japan for two weeks to study education, the environment, history, and industry/technology. Raines and his Television Production students have created a 22-minute educational video to introduce students to Japanese culture. Then, Raines was selected to be one of three Toyota Teacher Alumni to participate in the Toyota Youth Program Expo 2005, chaperoning 36 of the nation's top math and science students to the World's Fair in Aichi, Japan.
Before teaching high school, Raines was a television news anchor and reporter for eight years at local television stations, including WBMA-TV, ABC 33/40, in Birmingham, AL. Raines began teaching in August of 2000. He is currently teaching Video/FIlm courses in the Enivision Arts program at Canyon Crest Academy in the San Dieguito Union High School District in San Diego, California . Raines has won grants from the state legislature, the Arts Council, and the Chamber of Commerce. In 2001 and 2007, he served on the Alabama Career Technical Course of Study Committee and wrote the state's Television Production curriculum. Raines' Television Production program won the Alabama Department of Education Technical Education Program of the Year in 2004 and 2006.
Raines holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Telecommunication News from the University of Florida. Outside of school, Raines has been actively involved in leadership in the youth ministry at First Wesleyan Church. He was raised in a military family and lived in multiple states, including Hawaii, California, Virginia, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, and Alabama.
Biography
Mark Raines
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