Throw Away the Test

Test day can make even the brightest of students come to fear, I want to get rid of this problem. I think to many people have come to believe that making an A is a sign of a good student, I disagree. I think the sign of a good student is the ability to retain knowledge that can be used practically. Do not think that I do not want to grade my students though, I just want to do grade based on skill of knowing how to do something not on the memorization of things. When I was a firefighter whenever I became certified on something new there was a test on the knowledge of how to perform that new skill, for example when I became certified as a Driver/Operator I had to pass a written test but more importantly a practical test on how to drive and operate a fire truck. The practical test was a better indicator of whether or not you knew how to perform a task, we should do this in a classroom. An example would be lets teach our students about the Presidents, but instead of making them memorize all the Presidents lets make them demonstrate to us they know how someone becomes a President, their job and where to find a list of former Presidents. If we keep putting an emphasis on passing test students will not have knowledge of how to perform task they will just know how to memorize information.