Hello and welcome, fellow educator!
I’m Chiara, writing to you from Italy. I have been teaching in middle and high schools for over ten years—but more than identifying as a teacher, I identify as someone deeply passionate: I love literature, I love words, I love research, and I love beauty.
At the root of all this love is, first of all, the education I received. After middle school, I enrolled in a classical studies program, where I encountered ancient languages, Greek and Latin culture, and classical literature for the first time. I will never stop being grateful to my teachers, whose expertise and insight opened up that world to me with such clarity and passion. Their work truly made a difference in my life. By the end of high school, I had no doubt: I wanted to continue studying Greek and Latin language and literature.
It was not exactly a popular choice. Those studies were considered difficult, even impractical, with few opportunities “outside of teaching.” Still, that never discouraged me. I could not yet say what job I wanted to pursue — after all, my only work experience had been as a hotel waitress during the summers — but I could say what made my heart beat faster. My teachers and my parents believed in the power of passion over practicality, and they supported my decision completely. So I followed that sense of wonder and found myself at university.
Those years felt like a celebration. I got to spend my days studying what I loved most! I remember often thinking, while preparing for exams, just how lucky I was. I graduated in 2017 with a comparative thesis on a literary theme across the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew worlds (yes, I had the chance to study Hebrew and even Gothic at university!). It was a beautiful and meaningful season of my life.
But the very next day, a new question surfaced: Now what?
As I mentioned, I had not chosen ancient languages with a specific career in mind. It was time to understand how that knowledge could take shape in the real world. My father, a teacher himself, always told me that “teaching is the best job in the world”—a claim I initially viewed with skepticism. Students? Chaos? Parent pressure? Low salaries? How could that be the best job in the world? Still, I knew I could not dismiss the idea without trying it for myself. So when the first opportunity arose, I took the leap and started teaching literature in a middle school. And I fell in love with it.
I have never looked back since. Since then, I have continued teaching literature with deep gratitude. I passed two national teaching exams, earned full certification for both middle and high schools, and eventually secured a permanent position here in Italy — a true privilege. Along the way, I have continued investing in professional development, attending courses and refining my teaching practice year after year.
In 2024, I launched this teaching blog and my Teachers Pay Teachers store after realizing how much we educators need one another. We all know what we need to teach—but how to teach it? That is an entirely different challenge. My goal here is to share the steps of my own teaching journey with you, offering ideas and resources that are both meaningful and practical.
You will probably notice one recurring thread in everything I share: beauty. I believe that education should be rooted in an intelligent and attentive search for what is beautiful and true. For this reason, I only share literary texts, classroom resources, and educational movie activities that I personally consider meaningful and rich in depth. Whether I design literature teaching resources or classroom strategies, I always begin with the same question: Is this worthy of my students? Our students are thirsty for beauty — and so am I. I do not intend to aim for anything less.
If you’d like to follow along, feel free to check out my TPT store and this blog—I post regularly and would love to stay connected! You can also find me on Pinterest. And if you’d like to receive updates by email, just sign up for my newsletter below.
Now I am curious — what led you to teaching? Are you happy in this work?
If you feel like sharing your story in the comments, thank you. Every exchange of experience truly matters.
Happy teaching!
Chiara