Khasan Rajabov – English Teacher, Presidential School, Gulistan, Uzbekistan

From Student to Mentor: How One Month in Almaty Rippled Across Uzbekistan

I walked into the C5+1 Ed. program thinking I was there to collect new teaching tricks. Instead, I learned that teaching isn't about tricks at all.

Phase One came online from Uzbekistan. Phase Two brought me to Almaty for an intensive month in person. Phase Three returned online. But it was Marbella, Zoe, and Lois — the instructors who showed up with genuine care — who changed everything.

What struck me most wasn't their expertise. It was their humanity. They treated us teachers not as empty vessels to fill with methodology, but as valuable human beings. They showed us that warm-up activities matter, that varied teaching methods matter, but most of all, they showed us this: we are not robots delivering grammar. We are humans teaching humans.

That realisation hit different. I came home and thought about every student I'd ever rushed through a lesson, every moment I'd prioritized the curriculum over the person sitting in front of me. I decided right then — something had to change.

When the United States Embassy opened applications for their 2026 OPEN Program cohort, I applied. I was selected. Three months of online instruction with Iowa State University followed, diving deep into educational technology, micro-skills, and lesson design. Eight modules. Each one practical. Each one connected back to what I'd learned in Almaty: that good teaching is human-centered teaching.

But here's where the real work began. I didn't keep what I learned locked away in my own classroom. I started delivering professional development sessions across my region — in Bukhara, Gulistan, even Tashkent. I trained local teachers. I introduced new technologies, fresh approaches, but underneath it all, I kept returning to that core lesson from Almaty: see your students as human beings first.

A year has passed now. I've attended conferences, joined other programs, but I haven't found anything quite like what happened in that month in Almaty. Last month at the IATEFL Conference in Brighton 2026, I sat through presentations heavy on theory. But when speakers touched on the practical, human side of teaching — the part that actually reaches students — I recognised it. I'd lived it. I'd learned it from Marbella, Zoe, and Lois.

Now I'm trying to pass it forward, one teacher training session at a time.