In an era of student testing by any means necessary, it has become increasingly rare to locate teachers who are committed to teaching students to improve society because they are instead under immense pressure to raise test scores (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2006). Ms. Shaw, the social studies teacher discussed in this article, is deliberate in developing learning opportunities that help students think about and identify a purpose for learning and "being" in the world. In this way, this teacher has found a purpose for teaching and has empowered her students to develop a purpose for learning as well. This teacher's mindset and practices seem to be consistent with what we know about "good teaching." Good teaching encompasses what Ladson-Billings (2009) conceptualizes and calls culturally relevant pedagogy, what Gay (2010) describes as culturally responsive teaching, what Moll and colleagues have named funds of knowledge (Moll & Gonzalez, 2004), and what Lee (2007) outlines as cultural modeling. In this article the author asks the question, in what ways does this teacher's ability to emphasize purpose to her middle school students demonstrate cultural relevance in the classroom? In doing so he focuses on an experienced teacher's conceptions and practices in an urban, highly diverse social context.