I believe you are absolutely right. I've only grown close to a few teachers and in each of those classes I wanted to do really well out of mutual respect, and their interest in my progress. Now I'm in college and my class has built relationships with our professors to where they actually come out and drink with us! It's great! Then again, with my major it's alot easier because we have the same people in class everyday for 5 years. But definitely try to build teacher relationships...be a suck up, see your teacher as a real person, not some scary parental figure, and don't be afraid to shoot the shit with them. For real, it pays off.