This study explored the strategies used by an English teacher in teaching expressing feelings to Class VIII.1 at SMPN 2 Panyabungan, the challenges she faced, and the students' responses. A qualitative case study design was used to describe one bounded classroom in depth. Data were collected through one classroom observation, an interview with the teacher, and interviews with all twenty students, then analyzed with the Miles, Huberman, and Saldana model and strengthened by triangulation and member checking. Kumaravadivelu (2003) macrostrategies and Brown & Lee (2015) questioning strategies were used to decide which classroom practices could be called strategies. The findings show three strategies, namely contextualizing linguistic input, facilitating negotiated interaction through pair work, dialogue, and role play, and questioning. These strategies were supported by visual media, pronunciation modelling, drilling, feedback, monitoring, and additional explanation, which were not counted as strategies because the frameworks used in this study do not describe them as strategies. The practices were applied progressively, from visual and contextual understanding to guided practice and communication. The teacher faced challenges such as pronunciation difficulties, differing participation, limited lesson time, and the need to adjust explanations and grouping, which she handled through repetition, additional examples, and flexible pair work. Most of the students responded positively to videos, pictures, pair work, role play, and feedback, although some felt nervous when speaking alone. The study suggests that academic ability in unggulan class does not always match oral confidence, so teachers need to combine strategies with support for students' readiness to speak.