Bob Jones selects Jeremy Raper as Teacher of the Year
Jeremy Raper is Teacher of the Year at Bob Jones High School (CONTRIBUTED).
MADISON – Jeremy Raper has been selected top teacher at Bob Jones High School.
In 2011, Raper was named “National Teacher of the Year” by the prestigious Milken Foundation and “State Teacher of the Year” by the Air Force Association. Gov. Robert Bentley named Raper to his Teachers Cabinet.
This past year, Raper taught principles of engineering, along with advanced engineering design.
His advanced students pleased Raper with design work for Huntsville Botanical Garden’s “Big Garden, Little Me” event. “They had to treat this just like a real-world engineer,” he said. In groups, students wrote proposals, debated on two submissions, revised plans based on the garden staff’s review comments and started building.
Raper takes pride in sponsoring the Anime Club, Technology Student Association and robotics, rocketry and Scholars’ Bowl teams. Bob Jones Robotics Team finished first in website and T-shirt design contests. The rocketry team was selected to construct a payload for a college-level launch with ULA this summer. The technology club’s app design won Best in State from Verizon.
From his school years, Raper remembers third-grade teacher, “Mrs. Bryant, the most caring teacher I ever had. She loved us like no other and helped build my self-worth as a learner.” High school physics teacher, “Mr. Scott, inspired me to go into physics and engineering. He gave me an avenue for my passion in teaching and learning. I’ve never forgotten that.”
Raper earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics at the University of Louisville (Kentucky). At the University of Alabama in Huntsville, he received the Rank A teaching certificate and is pursuing a doctorate degree in optical science engineering. At both universities, he was a graduate teacher and research assistant.
He is an adjunct professor at Athens State University and teaches for ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators & Students Statewide).
His wife Pam teaches first-graders at Providence Classical School, where daughters Isabella, 12, and Olivia, 9, attend seventh and fifth grades, respectively. Aliza, 4, “learns everything she can from anybody who will teach her.”
