Middle school marks a period in which students’ academic interests and self-beliefs begin to consolidate, and mathematics is one of the subjects in which those beliefs matter most for later coursework and postsecondary access. This phenomenological study examined how eighth-grade students enrolled in accelerated mathematics courses perceived their teachers’ attitudes and how those perceptions related to their interest in mathematics. Six students were recruited through snowball sampling and participated in semistructured, one-on-one interviews conducted online during the spring 2020 COVID-19 school closures. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using first-cycle in vivo, emotion, and evaluation coding, followed by second-cycle pattern coding supported by network and matrix displays. Three themes emerged: the quality of the student–teacher relationship, the classroom environment, and the range of instructional strategies used to engage students. Participants who described supportive relationships with their mathematics teachers reported greater enjoyment, greater willingness to seek help, and clearer postsecondary goals, whereas participants who described distant or intimidating teachers reported reliance on peers, disengagement, and uncertainty about their futures. The findings are interpreted through Bandura’s self-efficacy theory and Martin’s motivation and engagement wheel, and participants described teacher attitudes, classroom climate, and instructional variety as bearing together on their enjoyment, confidence, and effort in mathematics. As a six-participant interview study, the findings are offered as a detailed account of these students’ experience rather than as a basis for generalization.