This collection of papers includes excerpts from books, essays, and articles that explore the heart of the teaching experience. Nineteen chapters explore the challenges and joys of teaching, focusing on the meaning and experience of teaching and the art of teaching skills. They include: (1) "The Heart of a Teacher: Identity and Integrity in Teaching" (Parker J. Palmer); (2) "The Mystery of Teaching" (William Ayers); (3) "Passionate Teaching" (Robert L. Fried); (4) "Reading the World/Reading the Word" (Paulo Freire); (5) "Teaching as Possibility: A Light in Dark Times" (Maxine Greene); (6) "Learning to Read" (Patrick McWilliams); (7) "Order in the Classroom" (Andrew Dean Mullen); (8) "`Welcome to the Sixth Grade'" (Brad Wilcox); (9) "Excerpt from `White Teacher'" (Vivian Gussin Paley); (10) "Teachers College and Student Teaching" (Herbert Kohl); (11) "Change, Resistance, and Reflection" (Seymour B. Sarason); (12) "Is Passionate Teaching for New Teachers, Too?" (Robert L. Fried); (13) "Groups" (James Nehring); (14) "Creative Teaching" (Sylvia Ashton-Warner); (15) "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children" (Lisa Delpit); (16) "Refining the Craft of Teaching" (Vito Perrone); (17) "Calexico, California" (Mike Rose); (18) "The Pedagogy of Poverty versus Good Teaching" (Martin Haberman); and (19) "The Immensity of Children's Learning" (Frank Smith). (Papers contain references.) (SM)