Edutopia Edutopia is an educational website that shows videos of educational value in many different aspects of technology. In this paper, I viewed three different videos that were all from the same setting. The videos take place in Yes Prep North Central High School in Houston, Texas. At Yes Prep North Central High School, students start attending there in the 7th grade. Once students are reregistered, a faculty member from the school will have an in-house visit. During this visit, the staff member, along with a parent(s) and the student will discuss and sign a contract. The contract basically shows the three pronged support system, or three legged stool as they mention. The support they are to receive to be successful must equally come from the school, the parents, and the student. Below are the three videos I observed, and the questions in relationship to these videos that I must answer as part of this assignment.
(1) List and briefly discuss three of the projects you found that were presented in any of the videos. Which of the technologies could you implement into your classroom situation? The three videos that I observed as presentations are:
• Yes Prep Cultivates Parent Engagement found at http://www.edutopia.org/yes-prep-parent-involvement-video.
• Yes Prep Cultivates college Bond Culture found at http://www.edutopia.org/yes-prep-college-preparation-video.
• Yes Prep Demonstrates Successful Team Teaching found at http://www.edutopia.org/yes-prep-team-teaching-video .
Yes Prep Cultivates Parent Engagement http://www.edutopia.org/yes-prep-parent-involvement-video This video wasn’t necessarily about a project of learning, but more about a project of information. In this video, Yes Prep North Central High School in Houston, Texas shows how they get their parents involved with the educational process. They showed us how you can take a book fair and use it as a fundraiser, and also promote public awareness of technology based-work that students are doing that are created by technology based applications. This would be a great idea to use at our school. We have an annual book fair. If we incorporated some of these same ideas that were in the video, it could really help promote community and parental support. I particularly like the idea of having a student presentations which only involved the student, the teacher, and the parent. Student accomplishments can be seen on a first hand basis by the parent and then they can be shown also at the book fair!
Yes Prep Cultivates college Bond Culture http://www.edutopia.org/yes-prep-college-preparation-video This video focused on college preparation for all students and helping them get into a four year college by graduation They talked about the core principles of Yes Prep and that their goal with every graduating class is that every student will attend and achieve in college. They discussed the three key components to this college preparation and they are
• environment of expectation
• a college prep seminar class
• college campus visits in which students get to experience the look and feel of a college They have an environment of expectation. All home rooms are named after colleges so that they can get excited about the various universities. The high school is more like a collegiate atmosphere. They take college preparation classes that show them how to apply to and pick colleges, practice ACT & SAT questions and how their scores impact them, the classes and degrees they can take, how to fill out financial aid forms, and everything they need to know about scholarships and how and when to apply for them. They also work on using the technology necessary to be successful for college. They make college campus visits. They take their high school regular classes on campus that day so that they can see the routine of a normal college day. During their duration from 7th grade until they graduate, a typical student will have 20-25 college visits in their
