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

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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YES Prep Brays Oaks Students Ask: Why don’t Jewish People Eat Pork?

January 31, 2011 by Sarah Straub

Why don’t Jewish people eat pork? How did Siddhartha sit forever without eating? Is Shiva evil or just a guardian for people? These questions are questions that I remember having when I was learning about religion – in college. Imagine how impressed I was to hear questions like these coming from the mouths of 6th graders?

My advice in college had been to travel to all of these different places of worship and get the story from people who actually lived, breathed and practiced their religions. Knowing how well it worked for me, I decided to plan the best field trip ever!

We began by going to a mosque where we were privileged enough for several students to be able to climb the ornately carved staircase up to wear the imam delivers his message. We listened to the imam sing the call to

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YES Prep East End Celebrates Geography Bee Winners

January 25, 2011 by Kaitlyn King

Last week at YES Prep East End, sixth, seventh and eighth grade students competed in the preliminary rounds of the National Geographic Bee. Students answered seven rounds of questions ranging from United States geography to physical and cultural geography, to the seven continents. Of those who participated in the preliminary rounds, ten finalists qualified to compete in the school-wide bee, which was held on Monday, January 10th.

The school-wide bee began with the Final Round, which included all 10 contestants. There were five eighth graders, 3 seventh graders, and 2 sixth graders represented in the final competition. In the first round of questions, Andrew Cerna, a sixth grader, was the only contestant to answer correctly with the response, “Arizona” to his question: “In which

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Ten Things I Loved about my visit to YES Prep

January 21, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

Each spring we host Campus Insider Events for prospective teachers to gain a deep insight into how we are closing the academic achievment gap and increasing the number of low-income students from Houston that will finish a four-year college.  At a recent event at our North Central campus, we had over 60 visitors for our largest event yet!  One visitor was so inspired that he was compelled to write down a few thoughts.  We thought they were great and wanted to share them.

10 Things I Loved at YES Prep North Central (in no particular order)

1. The awesome school spirit, including:

• The “better” t-shirts with three icons of school priorities on the back
• “Live the Blue Orange” slogan
• “Success is not measured by wealth but by happiness.” (one of the inspirational quotes

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