This study examined how virtual middle-school teachers establish meaningful and productive teacher-student relationships in virtual environments. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight virtual middle-school teachers, utilizing narrative inquiry methodology and the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework. The themes that emerged were: (1) deliberate teacher presence is necessary in the virtual environment, (2) teacher fostering of student sense of belonging in the virtual environment, (3) a recognition of the reality of the significant transactional distance found in the virtual environment, (4) the crucial elements of the virtual educational community and (5) that one student the teachers could not forget. These findings were supported as central to the research. Both the literature and the participant interviews granted the researcher ideas as to building teacher-student relationships in the virtual middle-school classroom environment. Recommendations for further research, as well as recommendations for practice were given, utilizing the data collected by the researcher. The discovery in this research was the fact that meaningful and productive teacher-student relationships are possible, if a teacher works to reduce the transactional distance found in the virtual classroom and utilizes practices intended to build those relationships. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]