Elementary Spanish Professional Development

You became a Spanish teacher because you love the language and you love kids. But somewhere between learning a new curriculum, figuring out pacing for multiple different grade levels, and wondering whether your kindergarteners understood anything you said today, things can start to feel overwhelming.

That’s exactly why Calico Spanish offers elementary Spanish professional development designed specifically for each participant. These aren’t generic PD sessions where you sit and listen for three hours and leave with a binder you’ll never open (because we all have one.) Our sessions are interactive, practical, and tailored to your actual classroom: your schedule, your grade levels, and your learners.

What Makes our Elementary Spanish Professional Development Different?

Every Calico Spanish professional development session is led by a trained world language educator who understands what it’s like to teach Spanish to young learners. All sessions are conducted virtually on Zoom, making it easy to participate from anywhere. Whether you’re a department of 1 or part of a district-wide team, our sessions are perfect for anyone ready to teach a child Spanish.

Before your session, you’ll complete a short pre-session survey so our curriculum director can customize the content to match your experience level and your specific teaching context. And because we believe PD should be a conversation and not a lecture, every session is interactive. Come ready to share, ask questions, and walk away with strategies you can use the very next day.

Check out our Teaching Tips playlist on YouTube!

Five Elementary Spanish Professional Development Sessions to Support Your Teaching

1. Getting Started with Calico Spanish

Best for: Teachers who are new to the Calico Spanish curriculum
Duration: 60–90 minutes

If you’ve just adopted Calico Spanish and aren’t sure where to begin, this session is for you. You’ll gain confidence navigating the online teacher portal, learn how the lesson plans are structured, and get personalized advice on how to adapt the curriculum to your learners and schedule. Teachers who are brand new to Calico benefit most from the full 90-minute session, while more tech-savvy educators can cover everything in 60 minutes.

2. Purposeful Planning

Best for: Teachers with unique schedules or extended class times
Duration: 60–90 minutes

This session digs into the how of lesson planning with Calico Spanish. You’ll review best practices for comprehensible input, learn when and how to ask for output from learners, and explore strategies for repeating content in new contexts. It’s especially valuable for teachers who see their students for more than 45 minutes a week or who need guidance adapting the pacing of our curriculum to their teaching schedule.

3. Teaching with Calico Comics

Best for: Teachers ready to bring Calico Comics into their Spanish instruction
Duration: 60 minutes

Calico Comics are a powerful tool for bridging oral language and print literacy—and this session shows you exactly how to use them. You’ll explore the comic lesson plans across all levels of the curriculum, see the types of activities available, and experience a live demonstration of how to read a comic to your learners. If you’ve been curious about comics but weren’t sure where to start, this is your session.

4. Customized Scope and Sequence + Curriculum Mapping Workshop

Best for: Districts with multiple teachers and grade levels
Duration: 90–120 minutes (must be booked at least 30 days in advance)

This is a hands-on, collaborative workshop where you’ll work one-on-one with our curriculum director to build a curriculum map for your school or district. Together, you’ll look at state and national standards, your district goals, and the Calico Spanish curriculum to create a plan that works for your specific context. Our team will even share examples from other schools to guide the process. Before the workshop, you’ll provide details about your schedule, grade levels, and goals so we can come fully prepared.

5. Assessing with Calico Spanish

Best for: Teachers already using the curriculum who want to strengthen assessment practices
Duration: 60 minutes

Assessment in a comprehensible input classroom can feel tricky, especially when you’re used to traditional tests and quizzes. In this session, you’ll learn how to use Calico’s Can-Do statements and student progress checklists to assess learners in the target language. You’ll also get clear guidance on when students are ready to move to the next level of the curriculum and when it’s better to spend more time where they are.

Don’t Speak Spanish? Calico Spanish Still Works for You

One of the most common questions we hear is: “Can I really teach Spanish if I don’t speak it myself?” The answer is absolutely yes. Calico Spanish was designed with this reality in mind. Many of the educators using our curriculum are traditional classroom teachers, enrichment instructors, or homeschool parents who don’t have a background in Spanish, and their students are thriving.

Our professional development sessions are designed to support non-Spanish-speaking educators just as much as fluent speakers. During the Getting Started session, for example, you’ll learn exactly how to navigate the lesson plans, when to press play, how to lead activities, and how to create a language-rich classroom environment, all without needing to produce the Spanish yourself. The Purposeful Planning session helps you structure your lessons with confidence, and Assessing with Calico Spanish shows you how to track student progress using tools that don’t require you to assess in the target language on your own.

If your school wants to offer Spanish but doesn’t have a certified language teacher on staff, Calico Spanish makes it possible, and our PD makes it feel manageable. You don’t need to be fluent to give your students a meaningful introduction to a second language. You just need the right tools and the right support, and that’s exactly what we’re here to provide.

You Don’t Have to Figure It Out Alone

Ready to invest in your teaching? Schedule your PD session today and start the next school year with confidence. All Calico Spanish professional development sessions are booked through our customer support team. Please email support@calicospanish.com with your inquiry today!