As a language, an international culture, and one of the world's most influential currencies, English holds immense power in shaping how we communicate and connect. As English teachers, we shape the exchange rate of this linguistic currency through daily decisions in our classrooms, which in turn shape our students' English-speaking identities. No two students of ours shape this identity in the same way because no two students are alike.

So, how do we create a classroom experience that includes everyone? How do we keep our classroom interactions personal and authentic in an era where we, English teachers in the classroom, can sometimes feel like we're in competition with other intellectual stimulation - "I just asked ChatGPT"-, alternative forms of instruction -"I'll find a YouTube tutorial"-, and an all-powerful world of entertainment -"but I put the subtitles in English when I watch Netflix." These things can really challenge what constitutes an interesting English class for our students and sometimes leave us feeling like we're playing catch-up with a pace of educational change that we'll never match.

However, we do match this pace quite easily by remaining dynamic and direct in our approach to classroom management, which will be the focus of my talk. I suggest a critical mindset that language teachers can adopt to safeguard our teaching space and students' sense of agency while bridging the gap between the expectations of what English language learning should be and the scope of what we can manage within our own teaching contexts. I will share ideas from critical pedagogy as I explore how we can ask the right questions and build the right reflexes when designing our lesson spaces.