Teaching in an Urban School: Purpose, Pressure, and Possibility

By Faith Darnell

Faith Darnell teaches math at University Prep Art and Design Middle School. In this piece, the first feature of Teaching Teachers Review, Issue 1, she writes honestly about what it takes to stay in urban education: the pressure, the joy, and the responsibility of building classrooms where students are pushed toward their highest potential without being defined by what they’re carrying.

“I see myself as a portal to greatness and excellence for my students.”

That line captures what this journal exists to do, give practitioners the space to reflect on their work in their own voice, without the distance so much education writing puts between the classroom and the page.