I’ve mentioned before that for the last year and a half I have been studying for a Graduate Diploma in Spanish. This is a qualification specifically for teachers of other modern languages who also want to be able to teach Spanish. I have been a French teacher since 2010 but so far I have only had temporary contracts lasting one school year. There just haven’t been any permanent positions available, especially as I could only teach the one language. I knew this would be the case so in my first year of teaching I started learning Spanish. I did a course at the local college and then I did an access course through the University of Dundee which allowed me to apply for the Graduate Diploma course.
The Graduate Diploma is a distance learning course so every week work is posted online for us to complete and then we go over this work in a tutorial on Skype the following week. At the end of each module (about every ten weeks) we complete a written assessment and then go to Dundee for an immersion day to do an oral assessment and some face to face teaching.
It has been really hard to keep up with all the work over the two year course. The first year I was working full time and pregnant but I still seemed to find more time to do the work than I do now. I know it will be worth it when I’ve finished but finding motivation has been very difficult since Toby was born. But, the end is in sight! We are now into the final module which, instead of weekly assignments and Skype sessions, is just a final project. I have to write a 2000 word essay (in Spanish) and then prepare three lesson plans, including resources for one lesson. I could choose any relevant topic so seeing as my brother bought me the DVDs of The Motorcycle Diaries and Che Part 1 & 2 for Christmas I decided to base my project on Che Guevara. I have until the 25th April to complete my project. Then there is one more immersion day and three Skype sessions to prepare for the final written and oral exams on 17th May.
Which brings me to the point of this post. I have a lot of work to do over the next few weeks and I really should give it my full attention so I’m going to have a little study break and things might go a bit quiet here for a while. I’ll still be trying to keep up with my weekly linkys but there might not be much else (ooh, apart from one exciting announcement to come soon!) until my Spanish course is all done. If any of you lovely people reading this would like to write a guest post for me then please do get in touch – I would love to have you here on Toby Goes Bananas!
Hopefully I’ll get through this in one piece – see you on the other side!