<p>Perhaps write a cover letter to your teacher highlighting what you loved about his/her class and the experiences that made a great impact on you. Then the teacher’s recollection will be refreshed with specific instances that can be incorporated into your letter of rec. The teacher obviously trusts you and wants you to know how highly you are regarded since you were shown the rec. Try the letter. Someone on another thread suggested printing out the school’s admissions criteria or suggestions about what they want to see in letters of rec and giving it to the teacher. I believe they provided a link to something on MIT’s site that was great to provide to a teacher.<br>
I had recalled Stanford wanted a techie and fuzzy rec, but I may be confused with other schools. I also suggest you use the 10th grade teacher as your optional if Stanford insists on 11th and 12th grade teachers. Stanford is pretty serious about the rules that they state for the application process. I would not suggest igoring any.</p>