As far as comments made about teachers seeing only certain things about you go, I have received wonderful references for various reasons from teachers who barely know me. My mom sometimes calls these shidduch contacts and they know less about the person they’re being a reference for than my mom does (and she’s only the sort-of shadchan).
It’s actually a real scream, because my parents went to PTA and one of my teacher goes to my dad and says, “Oh, your daughter is a wonderful girl, so intelligent–” and then he does a double take and asks, “Um— what grade is she in again?” And then he shows my dad my class picture on the seating chart to make sure he’s got the right person.
But either way I’ll take the compliment :).