This paper is a case study in the form of a teacher's personal diary of experiences during a semester teaching a class of academically at-risk high school students. It focuses on the interactions among the teacher, the class, and Roberto, a student with negligible English skills. Because of his lack of proficiency in English, discovered later, Roberto began the semester withdrawn and unengaged. As the weeks passed, Roberto started to emerge and finally became an engaged member of the class. The experiences relate to linguistic, social, pedagogical, and personal phenomena inside the classroom. These factors provided an environment conducive to Roberto's emergence from isolation. (Contains 2 endnotes.)