The Answer - A blog about Education, Preparation, and Commitment.

YES Prep Visits Teach For America Jacksonville For Summit on Transformational Public Education

February 27, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

A group of YES Prep leaders recently visited Florida to work with first and second year TeachForAmerica Corps Members working in Jacksonville. Our ties with TeachForAmerica run deep. We were founded by Chris Barbic who was a 1992 TeachForAmerica Houston Corps Member, more than half of our staff are TeachForAmerica affiliated either as corps members or alums and eight of our ten school leaders are TFA Alums. Clearly, TeachForAmerica has had a significant impact on the composition of our teams. We work hard to continue building our partnership with TeachForAmerica in creative ways. We thought that visiting a region outside of Houston might accomplish three things, 1) spread the word about the transformative work that we are doing in Houston, 2) share resources and expertise with first

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YES Prep Southeast Wizards Compete in the District 25 2A State Basketball Playoffs Tonight

February 25, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

We place tremendous value on being a family-oriented school, and on Friday 2/25 the YES Prep Southeast Wizard family needs your support. Our boys basketball team plays in the 2nd round of the state playoffs tomorrow night as a result of winning the 2A District 25 championship this year. The Wizards (19-6, 14-1 in district) take on Hempstead (26-7) at Foster HS in Richmond at 7:00 PM. I know it is quite a commitment to drive 45 miles out of the city on a Friday night, but our boys have been playing in front of hostile crowds on the road all year, and tomorrow there will definitely be a strong showing by the city of Hempstead. While we don’t have a geographical community to pull from, this game is a great opportunity to show the strength of the YES Prep community.

More than anything,

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If you are considering teaching right out of college, read this first

February 24, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

Below is an email exchange between myself and a prospective teacher from my Alma Mater Vanderbilt University.  I thought that it was such a great question and that many other prospective teachers graduating from college might have the same fears and hesitations about what classroom life could be like.  I wanted to share with other people who may or may not be interested in helping us prepare more low-income students from Houston for college graduation.

My first question is, you mentioned that you were having a first-year teacher crisis when you came up here looking at Peabody: how did you get through it, why did you stay?

This is the best question of all time. I was definitely feeling the pressure, weight, and intense stress of being a first-year teacher with no formal training.

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Any Given Monday: Student Support Counseling at YES Prep

February 21, 2011 by Hope Pacheco

On any given Monday, you will find a Student Support Counselor on every YES Prep campus. On some campuses, you may even find two, and if a campus is lucky, they might even have a social work intern. You will notice the SSC right away. They may be in the front office listening to an upset parent; they may be in the cafeteria talking to the students on RISE (our middle school discipline system); they may be in the hallway comforting a crying student; they may be making an announcement during morning meeting about Black History Month or Random Acts of Kindness Week.  They may be partnering with their Grade Level Chair about a student of concern or they just might be teaching a class. On any given Monday, there are twelve full-time Student Support Counselors walking the halls of YES Prep

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Four YES Prep Students Participate in AMIGOS International Service Trips

February 17, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

For more than four decades, Amigos de las Américas (AMIGOS) has facilitated transformational community service involving more than 20,000 youth Volunteers and thousands of communities in Latin America. Through our programs, high school and college-aged Volunteers jump in with head, heart, and hands to contribute to health, education, and environmental service projects.

Four students from YES Prep will be participating in their service trips this summer.  Our four Amigos students have received their placements and they are incredibly excited.  Katherine Ortega and Adrian Gonzalez will be going to Paraguay.  Jorge Guerrero is headed to Costa Rica and Ricardo Lara will be stationed in Ecuador.  All trips will be 7 to 8 weeks long.   Jorge Guerrero said, “I’m excited to immerse myself in

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