What does it mean to live a teacher's life? What does it mean to be a teacher, to become a teacher, to stay in teaching, or to leave the profession? Why are teachers doing what they are doing the way they are doing it? These questions have fascinated the author throughout his academic career as a researcher as well as in his teaching and his work as a teacher educator, an in-service trainer, and a facilitator of school improvement processes. In this address, given during the American Educational Research Association Meetings in 2017, the author looks back on his career and the ways in which he has tried to understand teachers' work lives.