rachelh@myweeklysentinel.com
CANTON — Canton Area High School will host an event on Friday, Nov. 5, from noon to 2 p.m.
The event is called SOLE Slam, with SOLE standing for Self-Organized Learning Environment.
“You present a question to the class and the kids go off and discovery learn and try to problem solve the question,” said Dr. Eric Briggs, Canton Area School District Superintendent, explaining what SOLE is.
Community partners and students will collaborate at the event and answer important questions on job seeking.
For this particular event, they will work together to answer the “big question:” “What skills, experiences, and information you need to become more aware of opportunities that exist in your community after you graduate?”
Students will investigate and present their findings, as community partners will offer information from the field. This experience will also provide an opportunity for student reflection and evidence for a Career Ready PA artifact.
“Our goal with this question is to get input from the community business owners. We (as school systems) oftentimes hear ‘your graduating kids are not ready for our workforce.’ So our goal in having community partners there is to talk to students about what expectations they have to help the student become a successful employee,” said Dr. Briggs.
The kids (about 120 students) will be in small groups and will rotate between community partners.
The event is sponsored by BLaST IU17, working with Canton Area School District, to help students explore their options after graduation. The connection will be made with students in 11th and 12th grades.
“Our goal here at the end is for our kids to become more aware of what skills they may be lacking or what skills they may need to be more employable,” said Dr. Briggs.
To become a community partner in this event, contact Dana Vermilya at dvermilya@iu17.org. Community partners will not need to prepare anything in advance. Facilitators will provide community partners with discussion prompts to engage in conversation with the students during the presentation phase of the SOLE Slam.