Hi, my name is Julia Quintero. I’m a 4th grade teacher in Chicago, heading into my eighth year of teaching this fall.

If you’re a teacher, you already know what I know: teaching is extraordinarily complex work.

But much of that complexity is invisible to people outside of our profession. Many non-teachers know school only from the student side of the desk, which can create the illusion that teaching is easier to understand than it actually is. They may see the lesson, the worksheet, or the classroom routine, but miss the hundreds of decisions underneath it: how to phrase the question, when to pause, what to model, how to model it, which student to check on, whose confusion to surface, when to redirect, and how to keep adjusting in real time so students feel safe enough, challenged enough, supported enough, and known enough to learn.

This is a Teacher is not about turning teachers into saints, martyrs, or superheroes. The goal is more precise than that: to illuminate the subtle, demanding, deeply skilled work that teachers do every day.

Teaching may not be the only misunderstood profession, but I believe the stakes of misunderstanding teaching are especially high. Public trust in teachers shapes how people talk about schools, how they respond to education debates, and what kinds of policies they are willing to support. When the public underestimates the expertise teaching requires, teachers are too easily dismissed, blamed, micromanaged, or left out of decisions about the work we know best. This project is one small attempt to pull back the curtain.

Of course, nothing can fully replace stepping into the classroom and doing the work itself, making decisions in real time with real students. But through teacher interviews, stories, quotes, and artifacts, I hope to help the public see what teaching really demands of us: intellectually, emotionally, socially, and creatively.

If you would be willing to share a piece of your practice with me, I would be honored to include your voice in this project. Complete this brief interest form and I’ll follow up with more details about the project and next steps!

I’m looking to interview teachers who are currently in the classroom and can speak to the questions, challenges, and decisions they are actively grappling with in their practice. To keep this initial pilot manageable, I'm looking to connect with teachers working within the city of Chicago. I hope to expand this project to the wider Chicagoland area – and beyond – in the future!