If you’re a new teacher getting ready for your first Spanish teacher interview, preparation is key. One of the best ways to stand out is by showcasing your ability to implement an engaging, effective curriculum. Enter Calico Spanish—a dynamic, story-based curriculum designed for elementary students that prioritizes natural language acquisition. If you’re interviewing for a position and need to discuss curriculum choices or deliver a mock lesson, Calico Spanish can help you impress administrators.

Administrators love to see student engagement, scaffolding techniques, and a clear structure—all of which Calico Spanish naturally supports. Calico Spanish also includes over 365 step-by-step lesson plans to make your job as low-prep as possible! But, we completely understand wanting to create your own lesson plan from scratch to really show your potential new administration just how much you can shine. So, here is how to leverage all that Calico Spanish has to offer AND create your own lesson plans for your mock lesson.

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Leveraging the Calico Spanish Resource Library

The Calico Spanish resource library is a Spanish teacher’s dream treasure box filled with videos, activity sheets, songs, flashcards and more! As you work to craft your lesson, you can select resources that best fit the type of job you are applying to. If you are interviewing for a position where learners will not know any Spanish before coming into your class, we recommend selecting resources from our Level A curriculum! If you are coming into a more experienced group of learners, try selecting resources from Level C or D for more advanced language structures and vocabulary. Check out the video linked here for an inside look at our Calico Spanish resource library and all it has to offer.

Elementary Spanish Teacher Interview Mock Lesson Example: 

If your interview includes a teaching demonstration, a mock lesson using Calico Spanish can help you shine. Here’s how you can structure it:

• Community Builder (2 minutes): Start your lesson out with a catchy Calico Spanish song. If your administrators are the students, encourage them to do some motions and engage with the song with you to lighten up the interview a bit and show off your personality.
• Vocabulary (5 minutes): Use a visual aid or flashcards from Calico Spanish to introduce the core vocabulary for your lesson.
  • Tech option: Utilize the flashcard viewer in the Calico Spanish
  • No tech option: print the flashcards beforehand to have ready for your lesson!
• Story Time (10 minutes): Show a short, engaging video clip from the curriculum that models greetings in context. Or, read aloud a Calico Comic!
  • Consider using a Google Slides version of a Calico Comic to show off your TPRS skills! Each Calico Comic Google Slides are equipped with animations that help you tell the story.
  • Before your mock lesson, we recommend spending time thinking of what processing questions to ask learners while reading. If you are unfamiliar with the processing question technique, visit this blog post by our friends over at The Comprehensible Classroom!
• Choose 1:
  • Interactive Speaking Practice (10 minutes): Use TPR (Total Physical Response) by having students act out a dialogue that was featured in the story you read.
  • Activity Sheet (10 minutes): Select an activity sheet from the Calico Spanish curriculum that supports the story and vocabulary taught at the beginning of the lesson.
  • Whole Class Activity (10 minutes): Craft a whole class activity that supports the comprehension of the text or reinforcement of core vocabulary structures.
• Wrap-Up (5 minutes): Play an interactive game, sing a song, or ask learners to share out something they learned in class today to wrap up the lesson.

Be confident for your elementary Spanish teacher interview!

As you enter teacher interview season, we hope that Calico Spanish provides you a sense of comfort and confidence needed to nail your future job! Remember to go into each interview with the mindset that you are changing the world by helping learners speak real Spanish to real people. Using Calico Spanish as your reference point in an interview or mock lesson can demonstrate that you understand effective, research-backed language instruction. By highlighting its comprehensible input approach, engagement strategies, accessibility, and long-term benefits, you position yourself as a knowledgeable and prepared candidate.

Best of luck in your Spanish teaching interviews—¡Sí, se puede!