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

Teacher Feature: Amanda Rawlings of YES Prep East End

September 05, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

For the past ten years, 100% of YES Prep's graduating seniors have been accepted to top colleges and universities across the country.  The success of our students is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our teachers, a group of individuals from diverse academic and professional backgrounds united by a sense of frustration at the status quo.  We believe that teachers are the single greatest factor determining student achievement.  In our weekly series, the Teacher Feature, we hope to show off our greatest resource: our teachers.

• I grew up all over! My parents moved around a lot so I have lived in Moline, Illinois, Chicago, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, Tennessee, and Orlan
• I attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas!! I graduated in 2007 and studied Biology and Studio Art
• I teach 9^thgrade Biology at East End!

In your class, what do you get most excited about teaching?

I LOVE teaching Biology primarily because I love making the content relevant to their lives. I focus heavily on disease and medical debates because the students can see how this information directly impacts their lives. I love seeing different students become passionate about different aspects of Biology from pharmaceutical engineering to AIDS research to diabetes and poverty to the impact we have on ecosystems around us! I love pushing them to think about the impact that they can have on the world around them and what their piece of “making a difference” will be.  Plus, showing pictures of flesh eating bacteria and African eye worms is always fun too.

Why did you become a teacher?

When I was in college in Waco, I worked the entire time with a group of inner city kids that lived in the Waco “projects.” Those kids taught me the need for relationships, stability, love, equality and light that is desperately needed in the world. I became a teacher because it is an avenue where all of these things actually can happen- we are, every single day, creating opportunities, building relationships, creating equality and being lights in a place where hope is often forgotten.  However, I am not only loving them and building relationships as best as I can but I am providing them with tangible skills and knowledge that they can use to not only be successful for themselves but spread to others as well.

What does college ready mean to you?

College ready means that a student is prepared culturally, academically, behaviorally, and emotionally and if we had done our jobs- gaps in any of those areas when they first came to us would be filled in. They would be prepared to be a strong and influential leader in the world with the capacity to not only change a piece of the world themselves but to move others around them to change as well.

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