Assessment

I've been afraid of the word assessment because I wasn't sure exactly what it meant.  I knew what it meant to me but I was worried that it would be too vague for my teachers.  As it turned out, I was right about what it meant to assess but I didn't know how to narrow the scope of what I was assessing in order to meet learning objectives.  I feel like I understand it better after today's class.  I was happy to affirm that assessment didn't have to be a turn-in assignment or test.  Assessment could just be listening to how students talk or work together.  Its nice to have some tools with which to evaluate my own assessments, such as checking for validity and reliability.