In this teaching memoir, Azya Maxton uses her twenty plus years of experience, teaching in various capacities from Pre-K to College, in over fifteen Baltimore City Schools to share stories and strategies. In this memoir, "Miss Azya", as she is commonly known to students. offers vignettes, victories and a multitude of real-life challenges from the perspective of an urban educator. Through this writing the author hopes to give you a better picture of the problems our students and teachers face, along with a few proposals for problem-solving and some worthwhile resources. It is the author's hope that we might use this text to contribute to the conversation, which, ultimately, culminates in the creation of an evolution in education.