The amazing thing about Nour is she seems to get exponentially smarter every year! In grade 9 (when I first taught her) she was already a strong student. But every year since then she has made incredible strides until now - in grade 12 - I'd have to say she is one of the strongest math students in the school!
What's really impressive about Nour is the SPEED at which she figures things out. Sometimes she'll ask for help and I'll be about 1/4 of the way through my explanation: "Okay, I get it now" she'll say. And away she'll go. If I try to keep explaining it to her, she gives me a look like "Please stop talking. I want to forge ahead on my work now". hahaha She's very polite about it but she doesn't like to be interrupted when she's in her groove.
Nour is one of my CS students this year and - once again - SPEED is her secret weapon. To be fair, there are two CS's at the same time (the amazing Samantha G is also there) but, still, I can not believe how fast these girls work. I'll give them some task (make a poster and colour it, etc) and think "that should keep them busy for a few days" and 20 minutes later they are back. "All done". HOW?!??! And they do such a good work. Much, much appreciated!
One of the cutest things about Nour is when she makes a mistake (not very often) on a test or quiz and then I hand it back to her. She gets so perturbed... but in a good way. She'll be laughing and making fun of herself. "How could I be so dumb? It's so ANNOYING!!". It's great because she really cares about her mark, she wants to do well, and she works really hard. But when she makes a mistake, though she is annoyed, she never lets it impact her happy disposition (at least, not in front of me).
It's been a pleasure teaching you for the past four years, Nour. It was truly very, very easy. I hope you take more math courses at university because I know you will be successful in them. In fact, I know that you will be successful in WHATEVER you put your mind to in the future. You are smart enough and personable enough to do whatever you want. Chase your dreams - I know you will reach them!