Teaching = Removing Obstacles for Students
Recently I witnessed how removing a small obstacle for one of my students led to a powerful transformation in how this student sees himself. A few days ago I asked my AP CS Principles students to add themselves to my class on the College Board Digital Portfolio so they can submit their Explore and Create performance tasks as part of the AP requirements for the course. In order to do so, they need to log in with their College Board account and then click on the class code of their corresponding class period. When I shared with my students the link to the Digital Portfolio, the vast majority of my 97 students were able to add themselves within a couple minutes. Those who couldn't remember their College Board password had to reset their password and were able to add themselves by the next day. There were a handful of students who had never created a College Board account, so they had to create a new account before adding themselves to the Digital Portfolio. Out of 97 students, on