I had the same experience with High School English teachers… I was a straight C student through school. No matter what I did I couldn’t break through a C, especially in English class.

Then one year a new teacher came to school and early in the school year she gave us an assignment to teach something to the class. This type of assignment was where I shined because it wasn’t the typical, boring work… so I dove in. I made sheets for the overhead projector, I had handouts, and overall I knew my shit. I got an A on the assignment. And every assignment after that. Once I forgot to do my homework, but she had told us that we need to turn in something, even if it’s a blank sheet with our name on it… so that’s what I did. I got an A. I actually had that hanging in my bedroom for a while because I felt it told me a lot about how the world works. At the end of the school year I got an award for ‘most improved in English’. The next year, I was a C student again.