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Confidence Builds Competence: "I can" statements and differentiated review for food safety success
Image created by Colleen Farris using Canva for Education free images. Preparing first-year culinary arts students for the World Food Safety Organization (WFSO) Essentials of Food Hygiene (EFH) credential exam requires intentional, equitable assessment design that provides learners with the time, tools, and support they need to achieve mastery (Bloom, 1974; Shepard, 2000). This post presents a manageable, data-driven, competency-aligned, differentiated assessment design that
Colleen Farris
Dec 7, 20253 min read


Manageable Assessments: The Missing Ingredient for Delicious Data
Image created by Colleen Farris using Canva for Education free images. I have a problem. I am the queen of authentic assessments, but my classroom assessment design skills are lacking. The hands-on assessments I design for my culinary arts students are rich demonstrations of learning. However, I rarely design classroom assessments because my curriculum always includes school-system mandated electronic assessments. In North Carolina, I measured proficiency by selecting test ba
Colleen Farris
Nov 15, 20253 min read


Thoughts on Assessment
I have been exploring assessment for almost three months. While I did not have the benefit of a broad teacher preparation program as a lateral entry teacher, my recent exposure to the history of grading, assessment, and educational technology in the United States opened my eyes to the manipulation, for political purposes, of our nation’s narrative concerning assessment (Au, 2008; Corrigan and Beazley, 2020, Lampland and Star, 2009). Prior to this, I understood that public edu
Colleen Farris
Nov 6, 20253 min read


Learning by doing: finding my place in education
As I near completion of the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program at Michigan State University (MSU), I am acutely aware of how much more there is to learn. That is not what I expected when I entered the program. I imagined an MAET degree would be a means to an end, but it has become a means to a beginning. When I graduate, I will continue to build on my strengths—my love of learning, my curiosity, my creativity, my facility with technology, and my proble
Colleen Farris
Oct 20, 20255 min read
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