Student Feedback Time

One of my students (who is the most brilliant student I have ever had) wrote the following to me:

Seriously, you are one of the best professors I've had in my academic career, and I want you to know that you are a gift for our small Midwestern university.

The most rewarding thing is that this student, who last spring could barely maintain a simple dialogue in Spanish, today writes this complex sentence in a beautiful Spanish without a single mistake. After the debacle with my recalcitrant grad student (who keeps sending me rude e-mails every day, which makes my blood pressure go up), this is a very welcome message to receive from a student.

And you know what this student decided to thank me for? He is happy that in our course we have daily written homework that gives him useful feedback and allows him to improve his language constantly. Being blessed with students like this one almost makes one forget all the drama generated by the sole nasty student.