Natalia Chapa Mills is a bilingual educator from the border town of El Paso, Texas, now teaching third grade in Austin. She leads with joy, community, and cultural pride—mentoring future bilingual teachers, presenting at bilingual conferences, and teaching with Academia Cuauhtli. On weekends, she serves as the project administrator for the National Hispanic Institute’s Austin Alliance. Her classroom and community practices center on love, language, and identity.
Dear Teachers, My teammates and I tend to romanticize the morning joggers we see as we pull up to work. They always look calm and energized, like they’ve already had a moment to themselves before the day begins. As a teacher, hearing the words “self...