Room 1 - Young learners, big ideas: Reflections on teaching English to children

This Teachers' Room aims to foster critical reflection and professional knowledge exchange on the teaching of English to young learners. Participants are invited to share classroom experiences, reflect on pedagogical possibilities, and explore the issues involved in working with children. How can we create joyful, inclusive, and effective learning environments for young learners? What strategies and materials nurture young learners´ curiosity, promote their active participation, and support a sense of identity and belonging in the English classroom? Join us in this collaborative room, where we hope to share perspectives, practical approaches, and questions that help us grow as educators.

Facilitators: Barbara Cabral Ferreira and Marina Araújo

Room 3 - Queer cinema in the English class 

This will be a place and a moment for sharing teachers’ experiences with their students in the classroom when taking Music & Cinema to the English class.

Facilitator: Renata Gonçalves Gomes (UFPB)

“Queer cinema in the English class” is a session of the Teachers’ Room that aims at discussing the relevance of working with cinema within the classes, in order to provoke students’ reflections on the issues of gender and sexuality. The methodology follows a dialogic learning one, based on two main epistemologies, which are: Queer cinema theory and Intersectionality. The main contexts that will be taken into consideration for the conversation are the public schools in Paraíba, Brazil. By the end of the session, there is the expectation that participants leave the Teachers’ Room more familiar with the theoretical basis, the movies, and the possible practices to be used in class. 

Room 5 - Teaching materials/textbooks matter: transcending language instruction and moving towards cultural education and citizenship

Considering the relevance of the teaching materials/textbooks to both processes of teaching and learning English and also that the modern EFL materials go beyond the traditional focus on language itself and aim the balance between language learning and the development of local and global citizenship , the purpose of this room is to be a place for reflections on how teachers’ deal with teaching materials/textbooks, paying special attention to the impacts of teachers’ beliefs about them on the selection criteria, the evaluation and specially the classroom practices. The participants are invited to engage effectively in the discussions and bring materials and textbooks, if possible.

Facilitator: Barthyra Cabral

Room 7 - Promoting stress relief and mental health among language teachers through breathwork

What if teachers could experience much more of the positive aspects of their daily work? What if there were a tool they could use daily, even during classes, to alleviate the impact of the complex and demanding educational environment on their well-being and mental health? Given that mental health is the foundation of every human endeavor, this room aims to address teachers’ stress levels and mental health concerns, offering a simple yet highly effective tool for preventing and mitigating mental health issues: breathwork. In a supportive and relaxed environment, participants will have the opportunity to share their challenges, reflect on how they have coped with stress, engage with current scientific research on mental health, and acquire practical, evidence-based strategies to enhance their well-being. The goal is to empower educators to overcome the obstacles that often hinder their ability to perform their jobs in a healthy and sustainable way.

Facilitator: Felipe Almeida Freire de Lima