You know what the great thing about being a teacher is? It's getting to see people find out that they're a lot smarter than they think. You can help them figure this out, but they really have to do it for themselves. In my latest round of marking, one of my students got 99% on her final exam. This from someone who started out at 51%. In this particular course, you need a final average of 65% to pass. A lot of students, faced with that sort of low start, just cave. Not this girl. She got serious. It was great to see. She started coming to my office before exams (and well before) armed with questions about the material. More importantly, these were intelligent questions, questions that showed she'd been actually thinking about the material. Which meant that she'd really been putting in the time. And she was nervous, and stressed when she came to write the exams, but she knew her stuff. She sent me an email today saying that 98% was the highest mark she'd ever gotten in a science course, and she thanked me. I had to point out that I didn't have anything to do with it. She'd given herself that mark through her own hard work. This is the kind of student teachers live for.