Early on in my teaching career (clear back a year and a half ago! LOL), I think I tried too hard to be "one of them" and not be the teacher, per se. Funny, too, that I am not your typical just-graduated-from-college 20-something, but rather I am a mid-50' veteran of the newspaper wars. So I think my efforts to be "cool" can be attributed to the age factor. Now, I am finding it much easier to be their fiend in a teach-appropriate way without crossing that line of being their "pal" but it took me a few cycles of students and a couple of bad experiences with students who were a bit too clingy (needy) to see where that appropriate line is to be drawn. I find these days if you take even a few minutes just to get to know them, to learn about their problems and their hopes and such, that's really all they are looking for from you, the teacher. They need to know that their partner in their educational adventure is on board and there for them, not that they are there because they got tirted of going to work every day and teaching is just easier (there actually are fools out therte who believe that!) ... I love teaching, and it is my relationships with my students that make my job so rewarding. Just my thoughts ... John Bryan