Masters

As I mentioned at the weekend, last week I received confirmation of my dissertation marks meaning that I passed my MA!  It made me think about the whole process and what a long journey the last five years have been.

An MA was never really on my life plan.  It was while I was studying for my PGCE in Leeds that we were told that it was going to become compulsory to do an MA as part of the PGCE to bring England into line with the rest of Europe.  As the first two modules would be included in our PGCEs at no extra cost, it seemed the sensible thing to do.  Of course, it's turned out to be very handy given that I now live in Europe!  

Apart from that, the whole experience was a lot more rewarding than I expected on a professional level as it really made me think about different aspects of my teaching at different stages in my career.  I took modules in language learning, behaviour management and cooperative learning.  The dissertation was definitely the most challenging aspect and the part where I considered stopping and just taking the diploma in education, I'm glad I persevered though.

In fact, that wasn't the only stopping point for me.  The first module was taught through lectures at 9am on a Monday morning - I'll admit I slept through several of those - which would explain why I initially failed the exam.  I could have given up there and then but instead, I learnt the material again without lectures, while working full time and went back and took the exam a year later and passed.  I'm one of the first to give up on some things at the first sign of trouble but the MA really showed me that when I do persevere, I can do it.

I see the completion of the MA as the completion of my education in a way, there's certainly no way I'll be going to the next level of PHD.  On the other hand, it looks like I'll be doing a German course next year.  In a way, learning and education is going to be life long for me - it has to be in my line of work - and it's something I'm looking forward to - nothing can be more difficult than the Masters!