For the past two weeks, I have had the great joy of offering assessment workshops here on campus for colleagues from around the region. The workshop, Assessment by Design, is a one-day experience with curriculum designed to facilitate the development of an assessment plan at the class, course, or program level, independent of discipline. Faculty from both 2-year and 4-year schools participated and I loved the robust discussions that took place around assessment issues at their institutions. My favorite part of the workshops were the wonderful “ah-ha” moments that occurred when everything suddenly made sense to folks and assessment turned from merely a compliance framework to a key mechanism for improving student learning.
All in all, it was a great way to kick off the summer. And do I ever love summer! “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy. Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high.” (George Gershwin)
I know I have mentioned before on this blog that I am from the Deep South. Actually, I hail from a little town on the east coast of Florida – Fort Pierce. There I grew up in what was kind of an eternal summer, but July was my favorite month as a kid because my dad would take time off and we would go to the beach – a lot! We would start school in August with dark tans – this was the era before anyone knew sun exposure could be bad for you and long before spray tans were invented.
In honor of summer, I am heading down south for a visit to my hometown. I intend to sit by the pool, maybe take a walk out on the jetty, and most certainly enjoy a little R&R. So I wanted to let you know that the blog will be taking a little hiatus, too. But don’t worry, for all its fun, summer is still fleeting. We’ll be back with new posts in August!
Sheri H. Barrett, Ed.D.