Master

I haven’t blogged anything for quite some time as I returned to studying last year. I never imagined going back to university, but in the search for a teaching job which fits in with having a family, I decided to do the Master de profesorado en educación secundaria, the Spanish equivalent of the secondary PGCE. The idea was that I could then get a regular job during the day. This hasn’t happened yet, although perhaps if I lived in a bigger city I’d have a better chance. And, of course, my timing couldn’t be worse, in the middle of massive education cuts.

Would I recommend the course? It is very demanding, there’s no getting away from that, and requires a reasonable level of Spanish, but I would say it is worthwhile for any TEFLers looking to move into the education system.

The course is divided into two semesters, and the first half was on general topics like the educational system, lesson and syllabus preparation and classroom communication and interaction. These were all given in Spanish, which meant a lot of concentration, but also brought my Spanish on leaps and bounds. As my speciality was English, the second half was given in that language and everything was much easier. Although I have to say, even after the summer I’m still not recovered. But I have the qualification now and I’m sure one day, hopefully sooner rather than later, it’ll come in useful.