Founded by TNTP, the Fishman Prize for Superlative Classroom Practice is an annual award for the nation's best teachers in high-poverty public schools. The goal is to shine a spotlight on great teaching and amplify the voices of some of the nation's best educators so that others can gain insight into their remarkable classrooms. No more than five teachers are selected for the prize each year. In addition to receiving $25,000--one of the country's largest monetary awards for practicing teachers--Fishman Prize winners collaborate with TNTP staff during a virtual summer residency. The residency provides a platform for the nation's finest teachers to engage with one another deeply over a short period of time without removing them from the classrooms where they do their most important work. As part of this experience, TNTP challenges the winners to capture in writing some essential elements of their practice and create a window into how they run their classrooms every day. This paper, the first in the Fishman Prize Series on Superlative Classroom Practice, includes the contributions of the 2012 winners. It presents thought-provoking often counterintuitive classroom narratives from these teachers who are having breakthrough success in some of the most challenging school settings. (Contains 1 figure and 8 footnotes.)