Teachers need to take many steps to reduce the gap in student-teacher relationships. However, teachers are not the best friends of students, they do not know everything about the lives and difficulties of their students, but friends do. Interaction with students is a key variable in determining the best teaching methods. In order to know/understand how students interact, we must use the reflective cycle, to observe how students speak, act and respond to each other in their comfort zone, or simply outside of the classroom. For example, we need to observe how students interact before school, during lunch time, and after school. Observers/teachers rely on the see/describe and analyze phases of the reflection cycle because it helps them focus their efforts on student learning, on how students' lives and experiences affect their learning; this gives teachers a plan to help them improve their learning (Rodgers, 2002). As a student teacher, I observed students before school, during lunch time, and after school at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, for approximately 2 hours in total. I will expand on what I observed in the first part of this article. In the second part, I will relate my observation to the articles we read in class. Finally, the third part will focus on my own experience as a student teacher. Part I: Before-School Observation Roosevelt High School was extremely quiet at 7:00 a.m., 40 minutes before first period was scheduled to begin. Several students enter slowly with purses and binders, backpacks and gym bags. When students first enter the school, they face 2 sets of tables with a bell tower between them. On the two tables closest to the gate, two groups of students sat and talked, cheerleaders and football players, all dressed in...... middle of paper ....... Additionally, while conducting my observation, I tried to blend in with the students because I felt that was the only way to observe them acting naturally. It helped me hear some anecdotes and even language that students don't typically say in the presence of educators. Overall, school observations are important for student teachers as they remind them that they need to understand students' thinking and ideologies in order to teach them without prejudice or hurtful ideologies. Works Cited Milner, HR (2010). An explanatory framework on diversity and opportunities. Start where you are, but don't stay there: Understanding diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today's classrooms (p. 13-44). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Rodgers, C. (2002). Seeing student learning: Teacher change and the role of reflection. Harvard Educational Review, 72(2), pages 230-253.