YES Prep has a 1:1 (one student, one laptop) Blended Learning academic model, as students are issued a laptop at the beginning of each school year. Students have access to their laptop 24/7 for the duration of the school year and use it during classroom instruction. Each teacher and course leverages the laptops in unique, grade-level appropriate ways to enhance instruction and ensure students develop college-ready skills. 

“Blended learning is the combination of active, engaged learning online combined with active, engaged learning offline to provide students with more control over the time, place, pace, and path of their learning.” - Horn & Staker, revised by Tucker 

Blended Learning will support us in meeting our mission of empowering all Houston students to succeed in college and to pursue lives of opportunity.

Our Guiding Principles are: 

1. Technology alone will not increase student achievement, but when we leverage it correctly, technology is a critical piece of our comprehensive approach to teaching and learning.  Technology is a critical component of our classroom blueprint & a vital tool for our unified intervention strategy. 

2. The power of technology to be a tool to personalize learning and actively engage students is an important lever to increase equity.  

3. YES Prep has the responsibility to prepare our students for post-secondary success. Being post-secondary ready must include having the skills to succeed in a blended learning environment.    These skills include, but are not limited to, the ability to navigate tools and an LMS, conduct research, organize and share content and ideas, engage online responsibly as digital citizens, and communicate online. 

4. We ALL have the responsibility to learn how to use blended learning in the classroom and to implement it effectively. We are all in.   

5. Technology is incorporated into the curriculum where it will enhance student learning and where it will teach the necessary technical skills to prepare students for post-secondary success. Not every lesson requires technology, but every course will have technology use throughout its curriculum. 

Schoology is YES Prep’s Learning Management System and one of the key apps in our Family Communication Toolkit.

Schoology is our digital hub for learning and campus culture. 

Teachers use Schoology to:

• Post classroom materials online
• Assign and collect work electronically
•  Share assignment grades and feedback
• Provide a safe forum for students to discuss their ideas and collaborate on projects
• Send student reminders and updates
• Answer student questions via Schoology messages

Schoology makes it easy for parents to stay involved in their children’s education. Learning is not just about teachers and students. Schoology allows us to bring everyone together—students, teachers, guardians, administrators—with one platform.

A Schoology Guardian account gives you access to:

• Your child’s classes and class material
• Your child’s upcoming assignments
• Your child’s assignment grades
• School and class announcements

Leveraging technology in combination with the aligned, active, and rigorous learning that is part of our YES Prep program, will help to ensure that all students graduate college-ready.  

Learn more about Schoology in the video below: 

Logging into Guardian Accounts: 

"Parent" accounts for Schoology are automatically created for all family members listed as a guardian in a student’s Skyward account. Guardians keep their same Schoology account throughout their student's time at YES Prep.

With parental access to Schoology, parents/families automatically receive a weekly email report. They also have the ability to log in to the web or mobile app to  view their student's classes, current and upcoming assignments, assignment grades, and more.  

1. Click on the following hyperlink to access the Schoology Family site: app.schoology.com or download the Schoology app from your phone's App Store.
2. Log in using your username and password.
   • Username: the guardian email address that is on file in Skyward
   • Passwords for Parents of new YES Prep students: use the "Forgot password" option to put in your email address and get a link to reset your password. 
3. Once logged in, parents should switch to the Student view to see their student's account, grades, and updates. 

If you need to update your email account in Skyward or confirm which email is listed in Schoology, please contact your school’s front office.

Let's learn how to log into your YES Prep Parent Schoology account by watching the following video:.

 See more about Schoology's features in the video below. 

For a more detailed breakdown of the differences between Student and Parent accounts, please watch the following video:

Students access their Schoology by going to yesprep.schoology.com and using Single Sign On. When on their student device, Schoology automatically recognizes their YES Prep Microsoft credentials.