Andrea del Carmen Castillo is an ELT professional with over 15 years of experience teaching in a variety of contexts. She has taught EFL, Theatre, Public Speaking, Current Affairs, and TOEFL Preparation. She is also a lecturer at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, where she teaches Assessing Language Skills, Literature, and Academic Writing. She is committed to creating meaningful learning experiences that allow students to explore themselves as human beings in a challenging world. Andrea is also a sworn translator and a member of the Guatemalan Association of Interpreters and Translators (AGIT).
“The Journey Back to the Learner Begins with Rediscovering Ourselves as Teachers”
In many English language classrooms, teaching is often reduced to the development of discrete skills such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking. While these are undoubtedly essential, they are not sufficient to fully engage learners or to respond to the complex, human realities they bring into the classroom.
This session invites teachers to reflect on a deeper question: What does it truly mean to teach a language in today’s world? Drawing on over fifteen years of experience across diverse teaching contexts, the presenter explores how the most meaningful learning moments often occur when English is used not as an end, but as a vehicle for expression, connection, and identity.
Through personal storytelling—including formative experiences in theatre and classroom practices that prioritize student voice, creativity, and authenticity—this talk explores not only how learners come alive, but also how teachers can gradually lose touch with the very essence that once brought them into the profession. In a reality where teaching can easily become something we do rather than something we are, this session invites participants to pause and reconnect with their sense of purpose, creativity, and humanity, and reflects on the idea that, ultimately, spaces where learners feel seen, heard, and valued are created by teachers who allow themselves to be seen as well.
Rather than proposing additional methodologies or adding to teachers’ already demanding workloads, this session offers a more sustainable and humane perspective: meaningful change can begin with a single, intentional moment in which both teacher and learners are allowed to show up as themselves. Participants will leave with a renewed sense of purpose and the inspiration to create one authentic learning experience in their own classrooms, where language becomes a tool for being fully human.
