As a beginning teacher, I have found reflective writing to be a crucial factor in the process of constructing my professional identity. This narrative was written after my first semester of teaching practice as a way of piecing together and making sense of the disparate elements of my professional practice. At the centre of this hypertext narrative is the STELLA Standards Framework (Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia). I have used the standards as a means of reflecting on my teaching and learning experiences, and seek to uncover various ways in which teaching standards can be used, not to define and constrain our practices, but rather to broaden them. I wish to offer my voice to the ongoing conversation about beginning teachers, which involves them as participants rather than subjects.