My grade 12 history teacher stands out very clearly in my mind, probably partly because of his ‘unique’ appearance. Before I had ever been taught by him, I had seen him in the hallways. I used to be very intimidated by his towering height, strange appearance, and his deep voice with a Russian accent. Once he became my history teacher, I grew to admire and like him very much… (Written on the back of a picture drawn by a female preservice high school teacher)

In my first two years of teaching, I had little inkling of how my students viewed me-at least in the physical sense. I was their teacher and that was that… Under their innocent gaze I slid comfortably into the teacher mode-I felt safe, undefined, sexless… All that changed when I accepted a job at a high school. It was not long before I became aware of youthful eyes-male eyes-looking at me in a way that did not always suggest innocence or neutrality. Now what I decided to wear on a given day became the topic of classroom conversation… Now I felt as if I was being systematically undressed. (Excerpt from an essay written by a high school teacher)

My English teacher was a middle-aged single woman who dressed impeccably, always wore exquisite perfume, and greeted us each day with a cheerful hello. She made English come alive for us. (Excerpt from a teacher’s journal)

Mr. Ryan was a mean, rotten slime ball. His yellowed teeth, the spit at the corner of his mouth, a few pathetic gray hairs slicked down with grease across his bald head, his sarcastic, menacing sneers-Ugh! I get shivers even now just thinking about him. I dreaded his classes, his taunts, his stick. We all did. I don’t remember a thing he taught me. (Excerpt from a teacher’s log)

When a teacher enters a classroom for the first time, it is not necessarily her or his ideas that first attract students’ attention. It is the body and how it is adorned and clothed-how it looks, sounds, moves and smells. Whether or not we realize it, the image we project precedes us, introduces us, and inserts us into the communication we have with students. This applies to most teaching situations, from kindergarten to university.