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Students in Snyder High School’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School (PTECH) program played an oversized game of Jenga Friday as a focus for a discussion on careers. Pictured (l-r) are ninth graders Illeana Madrid, Emily Davis, Brycen English, Larrisa Wilkinson, Ryder Garcia, Damien Jimenez, Shad Hodge, Jennifer Ramirez, David Santos and Corey Thomas. -
Students in Snyder High School’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School (PTECH) program played an oversized game of Jenga Friday as a focus for a discussion on careers. Pictured here, Larrisa Wilkinson pulls a Jenga piece as Shad Hodge, Damien Jimenez and David Santos look on.
It’s a simple idea: A student approaches a Jenga tower with multicolored pieces the size of bricks. The student rolls a die and tries to pull out a brick of that color.
If they succeed without toppling the tower, they answer a discussion question about careers.
If the student is stumped, the teacher sparks a discussion among the entire group. And then, on to the next player.
Jennifer Rosas is Snyder ISD’s Work-Based Learning/Pathways in Technology Early College High School coordinator Her students were engaged Tuesday in one of several activities created by Workforce Solutions of West Central Texas, she said.
“Workforce Solutions has created a focus on careers for the entire month of February,” she said. “They have partnered with schools who were willing to participate, and sent us an entire kit of activities that we can do with our students, some posters we can put up around the school with high-demand job titles, the list of top 10 soft skills that are needed. So we’re focusing and gearing everything this month that I’m doing with the students toward their future careers.”
Included in the kit schools receive are items such as career-focused games, posters featuring in-demand jobs and top employability skills, a banner promoting the program and giveaway items to share with students and teachers.
Rosas explained the purpose of the PTECH program.
“Basically it was created by the Texas Education Agency for life after high school. (Until) now, the more common model has been the early college, where students are graduating with associates’ degrees and things like that, but PTECH was actually created to catch those students who maybe weren’t ready for that associates’ degree level, or weren’t interested in that associates’ degree level,” she said.
“So those students are having the opportunity to learn in their future careers, but maybe at a different level, where they could get a Level 1 certification or they could get an industry-based certification,” she said. “So they have the opportunity after school to either continue their education, or have the skill set to go straight into the workforce or the military. It creates a plan for them, with a course sequence of classes that will help them through their journey.”
Snyder ISD’s program started this year with the freshman class, Rosas said.
“I currently have 75 freshmen that are participating in PTECH,” she said. “They’re our first cohort, so they are my only PTECH group. We are currently registering our eighth graders for next year, and are looking to have that number grow significantly.”