Thinking About The Diploma?

There are essentially 3 diplomas to choose from:
i) DELTA (Cambridge)
ii) Distance DELTA (British Council & IH)
iii) Diploma in TESOL (Trinity)

1. The Cambridge DELTA can’t be done part-time in Bilbao. But it would be a possibility for full-time study in the summer – I think it’s a 6-week course. (Martin, amongst others, did this course and you can ask him more about it).
2. The Distance DELTA is actually a British Council product (co-owned with IH). I don’t think there is anyone on the staff who did it but I believe Anne has worked as tutor / mentor for a teacher who did it in Bilbao a few years ago. Here’s a link to the Intranet: http://bcnet.britishcouncil.org:8000/ee/training/grants/delta_financial.htm
3. The most popular option in Bilbao in recent years has been the Trinity Diploma in TESOL. This link below is to a school called SGI in London, which is the school where the majority of our 'dip' teachers are studying. It gives a lot of flexibility in terms of start dates and when you do the practical element.
   http://www.tesoltraining.co.uk/diploma.html

If you have any experience with any of the above diplomas, then please leave a comment.

Learning styles

If you are interested in focussing on your learning style and getting your students to think about their own, here are a few useful links:

• Two lessons plans

learning styles (including a listening, personal dictionaries and grammar revision activities)

multiple intelligences (including how to introduce the topic and matching and problem solving activities)

• Two online quizzes

from the BBC

Birmingham City Council quiz

The more we vary activities, the more lessons will appeal to individual students. Helping them reflect on how they learn better also makes them responsible for their own learning and enables them to be more efficient students, which is also motivating and productive. Multiple Intelligences are not an answer to everything, but they are a useful tool for teachers to react to different personalities and make sure their lessons are as student centred as possible.

Mini Saga winner, Iker Muñoz & BC Director Simon Creasey