A Carmel Valley Teacher Becomes the Lesson

In 12-minutes on stage, a Carmel Valley teacher provides a lesson that will last for a lifetime for his students and thousands watching online.  In his TEDxYouth@SanDiego talk, Mark Raines speaks for the first time about a speech impediment he developed in 2011, after a lifetime as a public speaker, including 8 years as a TV anchor/reporter and 14 years as a high school communications teacher.  Raines spent months in speech therapy and saw specialist after specialist, fighting for his health and trying to find a treatment for his adult onset speech impediment.  Eventually, a neurologist prescribed Parkinson’s medication which now mostly controls the stutter. In his talk, Raines shares how he learned to embrace his true identity when his speech became impaired, and you hear from the students who were in the classroom as Raines taught while struggling with his speech.

An award-winning television and film teacher at Canyon Crest Academy, Mark Raines, is passionate about helping Carmel Valley students find and share their voice through film.  He was named National New Teacher of the Year by the Association for Career and Technical Education in 2008 and also received teaching recognition from the Toyota International Teacher Program, USA Today, and the Radio Shack National Teacher Award.  For the past 14 years, Mark has been the executive producer of a weekly student-produced television broadcast along with hundreds of student films and videos, often showcased in the nation’s largest film festivals.

You can watch Raines’ talk here: