Hello and welcome, fellow educator!

I’m Chiara, writing to you from Italy. I’ve 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 wasn’t exactly a popular choice—those studies were considered difficult, even impractical, with few job opportunities “outside of teaching.” But that didn’t matter to me. I couldn’t say what job I wanted to do (after all, I had only worked as a hotel waitress in the summers!), but I could say what truly made my heart beat faster. My teachers and my parents believed in the power of passion over practicality, and they fully supported my decision. So I followed that sense of wonder and found myself at university.

Those years were a real 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 wonderful moment.

But the very next day, a new question surfaced: Now what?

As I mentioned, I hadn’t studied ancient languages with a specific career in mind, so it was time to figure out what I could do with this knowledge and experience. My father, a teacher himself, always told me that “teaching is the best job in the world”—a claim I was very skeptical of. Students? Chaos? Parent pressure? Low salaries? How could that be the best job in the world? Still, I knew I couldn’t 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 haven’t looked back since. I’ve continued teaching with great joy, got married, had a child, passed two national teaching exams (which granted me full certification for both middle and high schools), and eventually earned a permanent position—a real privilege here in Italy! Along the way, I’ve taken many professional development courses and continue learning every year.

I launched this blog and my Teachers Pay Teachers store in 2024, after realizing how much we educators need each other’s support in this exciting yet demanding profession. We all know what we need to teach—but how to teach it? That’s 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’ll probably notice one recurring thread in everything I share: beauty. I believe deeply that education should be rooted in a thoughtful, intelligent search for what is beautiful and true. That’s why I only share texts I find beautiful, and learning experiences (like films or projects) that I feel carry deep meaning. Our students are thirsty for beauty—and so am I. I don’t 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’m 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 is truly valuable to me.

Happy teaching!

Chiara