There are many challenges that come with teaching in an urban school setting. Two specific challenges of teaching in this setting are violence and the languages (such as Black English). Black English is being used in schools all over America on a regular basis, not just in the urban school setting. Although it is very important to support our student's vernacular, as teachers it is important that we teach our students when to use these vernacular languages and when Standard English is the more appropriate choice. This process is often referred to as "code switching." On top of this challenge of languages that are used in schools a lot of attention must be paid to violence, not just the act, but the reference to it in our student's writing. As teachers we need to know when to really address the situation of violence that comes into our student's writing and when we need to respect it as an artistic move on the part of the author. These two challenges are huge when it comes to urban schools. What do you think about these challenges? Would you encourage "code switching" or would you simply tell the student to get rid of his or her vernacular? And what about violence in our student's writings? How do we address it?