j2025

The Fall Cohort of Spanish for Relationship-Building
SOLD OUT fast.

Don't wait to sign up for the Winter Cohort, starting in January, 2025. You're in the right place for all the details.

A new year,
a new Spanish-speaking you.

You want to be the best educator you can be for all your students and families.

Yet, the language barrier feels like just that -- an invisible wall between you and your kids' families -- making it hard to make your interactions as personal as possible, and to make students and families feel respected and taken care of like you want them to.

Learning Spanish can feel daunting, like it will require years of study, time abroad, or dozens of hours answering questions in an app.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

You do NOT have to:

feel stuck behind a language barrier
take the traditional pathway to learn Spanish
be "good at languages" to build relationships in Spanish

You CAN:

learn the Spanish most useful to building relationships in a school environment
gain the confidence to use your Spanish with real people at school
become someone who that makes students and families feel safe, seen, and valued

Feel empowered, proud, and joyful.
Have fun!

Enroll in Spanish for Relationship-Building.

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What you will learn

Some examples of what you will learn in the course are:

How to ...
pronounce Spanish, including how to pronounce students' names correctly.
welcome students and families into your space
introduce yourself, what you do, and your role in relation to the student.
ask students and families questions about what matters to them (and how to understand what they say in response).
invite families to special events, like conferences, family nights and field trips.
congratulate students on their hard work, growth, and accomplishments.
compliment students and pass those compliments to their parents and caregivers.
As well as ...
Best practices for communicating with families via phone, text, or in-person to minimize miscommunications or cultural misunderstandings.

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Dates and Times

Tuesdays evenings, 4:00-5:30 PM CST

January 21
January 28
February 4
February 11
February 18
February 25

All classes are virtual. Zoom link provided upon enrollment.
Materials are shipped to address provided on enrollment.

Cost

Early bird pricing (by Dec. 6): $430 per person

This price is a steal. For the full six weeks, it comes to under $72 per week, plus daily access to my Spanish support on my personal cell.

Enrollment closes January 14, 2025 or when seats sell out.

after Dec. 6, enrollment increases to $480 per person

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Course Features

6-weeks of 90-minute virtual lessons
Lessons include:
Pronunciation practice
School-specific vocabulary building
Realistic scenarios for work in schools
Lots of practice, so you don't just learn on paper, but you learn for what matters - real life at school
Differentiated practice to form sentences at at a level that pushes you to your next level, not your neighbor's.
Guidance preparing for a conversations that fit your daily experience, not someone else's.
Support between lessons include:
Optional weekly challenge. Anne will share a targeted and meaningful way to practice your learning from the week. Participants in the challenge have the chance to earn prizes that are actually meaningful (read: NOT another piece of SWAG).
Optional text hotline. Something comes up mid-week? Ask for help via text. Anne will give you guidance before the next class.
Optional small group conversation practice. If you want more conversational practice, sign up for a small group practice at a time that works for you, and work on a topic important to you.

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Benefits of the course

You will experience:

Increased student engagement
Increased outreach to and from parents and caregivers
Greater ability to meet families' needs and address their questions
Greater confidence and pride in your role
Greater joy in your new stronger relationships
FUN!
PD that actually changes your practice and daily experience at school

You will become:

A model for families that you value them and their language
An encouraging adult for students to value and preserve their own heritage language
An opportunity for students and families to help you learn Spanish, building their confidence and joy

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Testimonials

This course was very fun, engaging and helpful with learning Spanish to help build relationships and communicate with families. It provided a variety of words and phrases that are useful for all students, along with making it possible to communicate and make connections with students that are not native English speakers.

Anne did a fantastic job with providing the session handouts in a very timely manner. She is also very understanding with busy schedules and fitting more things into it. Having the sessions recorded so you can watch them again is fantastic. It will provide an opportunity to revisit the sessions to gain more practice which will allow me to continue to improve my Spanish speaking skills.

Thanks Anne!! You did an amazing job!
- Maggie T., MTSS Facilitator

My name is Devon Palmer, 7th Grade Math Teacher and Grade Level Chair at Kipp Inspire Academy. This class was a great way to get specific, class-related phrases and conversation starters to help my English Language Learners and their families feel more involved with what's happening at school. I feel like more of an ally for my Spanish-speaking families now, plus Anne is a fantastic teacher that knew exactly which things to focus on that made the most sense in my room. Highly recommend!!
- Devon P., 7th Grade Math Teacher

I am a 4th grade teacher at Empire Elementary. I loved the relationships that we built while learning Spanish for Relationship-Building! Anne is such a great supportive instructor. I have gained the knowledge and confidence to practice with students as I was learning in the course. If you’re even thinking that you might want to participate in this course, do it! You will learn so much in such a short amount of time that flies by. It is so worth it!
- Lisa S., 4th grade teacher

My name is Ryan and I am the Lead ESOL Specialist at South City Academy. This is my third year teaching at this school and my first year as the department lead. I have picked up some short words/phrases that I have been able to use with my students but I wanted more. That is where Spanish for Relationship-Building came in. I love how each lesson touches on a different component of learning Spanish while also building on each other. Anne also was so accommodating and adaptive about what specific skills our group was wanting.
- Ryan L., ESOL Specialist

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Is this course right for me?:
Common Concerns

No matter your past experience with Spanish -- good, bad, or non-existent -- this course is planned with you in mind.
You may doubt yourself because you have never taken Spanish before, or if you did, you never got to the point where you felt conversational. On the other hand, you might wonder if this course is too easy for you because you did pretty well in high school Spanish. This course includes lots of built-in differentiation to allow all students, with a wide range of experiences with Spanish, push to their next level.

The time commitment is designed to fit your educator life, not the other way around.
If you are concerned whether you have the bandwidth and endurance to make it through the full course, because you know how crazy school gets ... believe me, I get it. I have been a classroom teacher, an administrator, and an ELL teacher and coordinator. I have been a casualty of educator burn-out, and I know how much work it takes to maintain a sense of wellness amidst it all. I have designed this course so that as long as you show up to class, you can build the knowledge you need. If you miss a class, you have a recording. And for those who want to practice between classes for the best results, I don't give homework, but instead focused challenges you can fit to your daily work, which past students have greatly appreciated! I also offer lots of take-or-leave-it supports so you can spend as much or as little time between classes as possible, and still experience a meaningful transformation.

I do encourage participants to come to all six classes live. However, if you miss one, we have a recording available. If you look at the dates and already know you will miss more than two classes, I do encourage you to wait for a different offering.

Together, Languages help you get past your fears so you can speak to real people.
I know you may be worried about making mistakes that accidentally offend someone or make you appear unprofessional in front of the people whose respect you most want to earn. I have been in your shoes, and I promise that we address them head-on so you feel equipped to overcome those fears.

Does your stomach may turn at the thought of attempting your Spanish and having a parent launch into a whole speech in return ... and not being able to understand what they say? You are not alone! We practice listening skills, including listening for key words, and we practice responding to parents to let them know that we are learning, to ask them to slow down, or that we are getting help if it comes to that. After all, the relationship and trust is the goal here.

Why learning Spanish doesn't have to feel daunting

Let's talk for a minute about why you feel lost among your language learning options.

Other Spanish courses walk you through the traditional scope and sequence of the entire Spanish language, requiring years of study for most people become conversational if they can stick it out that long.
Other courses, even when they are "comprehensive" don't target the specialized vocabulary of schools ("field trip," "attendance" "conferences" "report card" etc.), meaning even if you master everything they teach you, you still can't have most school conversations.
There are great language apps out there, but they pose the same obstacle as most courses: relying on apps alone will delay your progress and omit the vocabulary most important to you in your school setting, leaving gaping holes in your language that will prevent you from even applying the language you have learned along the way.
Let's add that neither traditional courses nor apps can give you support with your specific practical concerns: You need a program that fits into your busy schedule, helps you learn to talk on the phone, and present yourself as warm and professional even if your language isn't perfect.

Satisfaction Guarantee

If you attend the first two lessons and do not feel the class is a good fit, you can choose between receiving a full refund or four private lessons instead of class participation at no additional cost.

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Who is your teacher?

Before her career in education, Anne Truran worked seasonally in Mexico and Central America over the course of ten years. She fell in love with the classroom when she began teaching first grade on the Texas-Mexico border at the age of 23 ... in Spanish to native Spanish-speakers. She later taught Spanish immersion, bilingual intervention, and wrote Spanish and English reading curriculum Austin, TX.

Starting in 2015, Anne became an assistant principal in a monolingual school setting in St. Louis, MO. Suddenly she found herself the only linguistic link between Spanish-speaking families and the school. She believes there are many educators out there who want to forge direct connections with Spanish-speakers, and she loves to see the many unexpected benefits they experience once they do.

Anne has a 2-year-old son and 3-year-old dog who are learning Spanish and English at the same time. She loves gardening -- though she doesn't do as much of it as she would like -- strolling in her neighborhood park, and slow travel.

START BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS