Metaphors and metaphor usage infuse everyday classroom life, and student learning becomes affected and structured by the metaphoric constructs that teachers wittingly or unwittingly employ. This study is an initial inquiry into the nature of teacher use of metaphors in the classroom. The study attempts to identify some specific teaching/learning metaphors that teachers and students use in their daily interactions with each other in regular classroom situations. The study also attempts to examine how and the extent to which these discernible, interactive teaching/learning metaphors might positively or negatively affect the perceived degree of environmental robustness in these classrooms and to determine how they affect the quality of teacher performance in the classrooms. This study utilized observational data collected over a 5-month period. The classroom-based performance of beginning and experienced teachers in 100 classrooms was assessed using the System for Teaching and Learning Assessment and Review (STAR). The findings suggest that teacher use of specific teaching/learning metaphors is tied to various levels of percentage scores on key STAR indicators measuring high student engagement in learning and that these teaching/learning metaphors are also correlated with resultant levels of classroom robustness. Appendixes include: characteristics of high and low robustness classes, selected key STAR indicators, examples of clustering of supportive field data for metaphors identified, and a bar graph of the teaching/learning empowerment continuum. (IAH)