Description: The Tennessee Language Center (TLC), an agency of the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service, is excited to collaborate with school districts and offer a new Spanish for Educators course created to serve the needs of K-12 teachers to develop intercultural competence/awareness and communication skills. This 10-week beginner language course has been designed specifically for teachers, school personnel, and administrators who have very little to no previous study of Spanish so that they can connect to their ELL/Spanish-speaking students’ lives and foster a sense of belonging and respect. By building proficiency in Spanish, teachers can establish and nurture relationships with their students and family members within both school and community contexts. 

Course Objective: Teachers in the Spanish for Educators course will develop cultural understanding and a basic repertoire of conversation skills to engage with Spanish speakers in their schools and local communities. Topics will include greetings / introductions, schedules / meeting times / events, basic personal information, school expectations, families, physical appearance and personality traits, words of encouragement, and emotions/moods.

Upon successful completion of this course, teachers will be able to:   

• Use proper address (formal vs. informal) to introduce themselves, greet others (colleagues, students, parents, etc.), and say goodbye 
• Ask someone to repeat or speak more slowly 
• Spell and pronounce names correctly in Spanish and understand the importance of family names in Spanish-speaking cultures and the use of one or two first/given names and two surnames  
• Talk about countries of origin / nationality and nationalities   
• Talk about schedules, meeting times, and events, e.g., schedules for parent/teacher conferences, back to school nights, school calendars in Spanish (day / month / year) with key events 
• Ask and answer simple questions about age, where people live, what they do for a living (profession / occupation), and the language(s) they speak   
• Recommend / Direct students and parents to school personnel 
• Ask and tell where school facilities (e.g., main office, cafeteria, gymnasium, etc.) are located in relation to each other 
• State some common school expectations (e.g., what is allowed and not allowed at school), obligations, and responsibilities 
• Provide simple recommendations and instructions  
• Identify and present (e.g., name, age, nationality, job, etc.) immediate and some extended family members
• Describe physical appearance  
• Identify personality traits, for example, when discussing students’ strengths and areas for improvement with other teachers, school staff, and/or parents.  
• Use simple words / expressions of encouragement  
• Identify and express emotions/moods, for example, how are you feeling? daily check-ins, mood meter (Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence RULER tool) to help students identify their emotions/mood using Spanish for Social Emotional Learning in the classroom (SEL) and provide empathetic feedback

Course format: Teachers will spend two hours (120 minutes) per week in class via a live, interactive Zoom session with their TLC language instructor. The class format allows for multiple opportunities to interact with and ask questions to the instructor as well as the other classmates, who share the same profession. Due to the participatory nature of this course, we ask that you have your cameras on at all times. 

Expectations / time commitment: Teachers will be expected to complete approximately 90-120 minutes (1.5 to 2 hours) of out-of-class homework per week. Since teachers will be developing their language proficiency in Spanish and each class builds on the next, they should commit to attending all 10 class sessions, come to each class prepared to actively participate, and complete the out-of-class work assigned by the course instructor.

Professional Development Points: Teachers who complete all 20 hours (10 weeks) of the Spanish for Educators course will receive 20 Professional Development Points (PDP). Those attending between 18-19 hours will receive the corresponding number of PDP. Anyone who misses more than one class session (i.e., 2-hours) will not receive PDP.

Required Materials: A1.1 eBook of Hablamos (Edinumen publisher).

Additional language study: Upon successful completion of the 10-week Spanish for Educators course, those teachers who wish to continue their study of Spanish can enroll in TLC’s Spanish Survivor 2 class and subsequent levels (Survivor 3, etc.) to build on the language proficiency and cultural knowledge gained in the introductory course. In addition to Spanish, we offer classes in Arabic, ASL (American Sign Language), Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian. Educators receive a 15% discount on TLC small group language classes. Some districts have provided professional development funds for teachers to take these classes for free.