and there was clarity...

In one of the many 'examinations' I had conducted, I found that a student was in the zone and her work was just flowing and clear for a three pages. There were no scratch marks, just one thought logically linked to the next, unperturbed by class that was going on around her (they were not all writing an exam). The answers were brief and efficient without the meandering that the mind often does with word problems. I have not seen her replicate the efficiency and clarity she achieve that day, but it was one of those moments that you know something special happened...

One of my Xth class students said he had wondered why I made them work and think on their own instead of working out all the problems on the board. One day, before his term examination, he sat down and tried to work out exercises in the area that I had 'taught' and was able to do the entire exercise in one sitting without getting confused or even pausing. He said he was spooked and  he didn't know what happened to him.

You don't need moments like these to tell you that something in what you are doing is working, but I have to admit they help.