Colleen Farris

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 problem

How a creative assessment challenge revealed my thinking about evaluation of student learning After producing six new creative assessments for my culinary arts classroom in a short period of time, I have clear evidence of how I approach evaluation of student learning. I like rubrics. I avoid grades, but like standards. I use both peer and teacher feedback as evaluative tools. I build creative projects around required curriculum content. I minimize the impact of grades by sett

Who wins the game of high-stakes testing? In 2012, I decided to become a high school teacher. In my state, a teaching degree was required—except for hard-to-fill positions such as family and consumer sciences. Since that was the job I was applying for, I only needed to pass the Praxis®  exam for my content area. I registered and began studying diligently. While I was an expert in food, nutrition, and culinary arts, the Family and Consumer Sciences Praxis®  exam covered severa