An Unexpected day

I did a dyspraxia awreness training day for the Shaw Trust in Birmingham on Monday. At the Inclusion conference I commented that the Parogon Hotel is the sort of Hotel the Shaw trust sends me so as predicted I stayed there last Sunday evening.

I managed to Blag my way through quite an eventful day. I didnt sleep well the night before because I picked up an ear infection from the Gym I joined (so much for healthy living which has made me unhealthy).

I Asked at reception how far away the training venue was from the Hotel and was advised there was no need to get a taxi as it was only a 5 mins walk away. Was it heck! by the time I found it it took 30 mins. As a coping strategy I asked the Shaw Trust to print out my handouts and deliver them to the venue as I usually get them out of sequence as I dont employ a Personal assintant.

I arived deaf and without my specks which got stolen in the gym, to find that my handouts were missing and blagged my way for an hour until they were found. To cap it all just when it came to doing the Powerpoint prsentation my laptop refdused to speak to the projector and I had to just do the presentation from the Handouts.

I forgot to swithch off my phone so it went off in the middle so I cut the person off who phoned me. When I phoned her back my friend was in tears about somthing so I had to support her rather than say goodbye properly to the people that I was training.



In spite of this We got through everything that I had planned and we finished early Hopfully the people that I was training were impresed with the way I delt with the mishaps like a trooper. LOL and I dont get a poor evaluation.



The good news is my part time Travel training job with a Mental Health Charity in Bolton is funded until June and my boss is hopeful that we will be getting 5 years lottery funding to continue the project. I probably could get a better job but its not easy getting a job during the credit crunch and one thats suitable for my dyspraxia, as most employers dont give a toss about removing disabling bariers.

Long time no see

its a long time since I kept up with my blog. i have become addicted to facebook so have neglected my blog.
I have been very busy working part time as a travel trainer. doing my MA in Inlusion & SEN and the Manchester Adult Neurodiversity Action group.
To hrlp my stress levels i have joined a gym but some asshole nicked them or broke them and threw them away when my back was turned in the changing room. so im getting some funky red specs soon.
I am going to do some dyspraxia awwareness for the shaw Trust in Birmingham a week on Monday.

Oh Mfanwy! I’m The Only Strait Jewess In Keshet !

On Friday Night I attended the Liberal Shull’s Welcoming Pride Shabbat. I found the service very moving although I’m still finding Liberal Judaism surreal as I was brought up in an old fashioned Orthodox Synagogue, which discriminated against lesbians, gays and bisexuals. It’s about time Judaism was brought kicking and screaming into the 21st century!

I was invited by Keshet (Hebrew for Rainbow) to support them at the Manchester Pride Parade. I thought it was an ideal time to celebrate the fact that I am a born again Jew and to thank L for introducing me to such a friendly Jewish Community. I know what is like to be excluded and oppressed thanks to the hegemony of Orthodox Judaism. So I marched wearing the Keshet T- shirt and a rainbow coloured yarmulke in front of what looked like the whole of Greater Manchester! It was a really positive experience.

Later on we went for a meal in the Gay Village. I was sat opposite the Rabbi so thought it best not to eat meat in front of him even though he is defiantly not a stereotypical Orthodox type of Rabbi. Then I went to Kyoties with the women and the men Including the Rabbi went out Clubbing with his boyfriend. How cool is that a Rabbi that goes clubbing!

What a shame I’m the only Strait Jewess in Keshet or I could marry a nice Jewish girl! It’s like ‘the Well of Loneliness’ in reverse!

Liberal Judaism

My Jewish friend L that I worked with on the DANDA commitee invited me to attend the Jewish Liberal Service at Cross Steet Church Last night. I was brought up in an orthdox shul (synagogue) and although I tried several times to be part of the Jewish scene by attending Jewish youth groups I never fitted in and spent most of the time in on my own both in shul and at discos. when I attended Sunday School and Evening classess known as Chader, I found it difficult to learn to read Hebrew and was treated like I was stupid and ostracised by my peers which made me very shy when I tried to mix with Jewish young people. I even went to Israel twice with a youth group, the second time on a kibbutz. and was socially excluded each time. I got on better with the Christian volunteers and had a Norwiegen boy friend called Ole.

I have only been to shul before because my Dad made me until I was 12 and to attend weddings and Barmitvahs. The last time after 36 years I went back to the shul my I was brought up in for my brother Rubin's 50th Birthday. I had fogiven everyone but this was quite traumatic as I had systematically been bulied for 8 years there. However I did not decide to rejoin the congregation as Im too set in my ways for traditional Judaism.

I looked at the Liberal shuls website and found as an anti-oppresive practitioner that thier values were similar to mine.
That:

"ethical injunctions to be of a higher order than ritual instructions, and
affirms the equality of each individual Jew, regardless of race, gender or
sexuality."

I obseved that disablity was not mentioned as part of thier equality remit, however I did not need to challenge them about this. as I was made very welcome. When I was offered a Sidur (prayer book), out of ingrained habits and the fact that I thought it would all be in Hebrew I refused one as I had come out of curiosity and had come to obseve rather than take part. The service was partly in Hebrew and partly in English and still had some simlarities to traditional services except women took part as well as men and a muscian very skillfully played the lyre. this is a sin in an othdox shul as musical instruments are not played on the sabbath.

I noticed that some of the congergation were not reading Hebrew script and had Hebrew tranlations in English script. One lady had her translation in large print and another had her's printed on green paper. I began to enjoy the service finding it very spiritual and wished that I had accepted a Sidur. I was asked afterward if the reason that I had refused a Sidur was because I needed the translations and if I came again they would provide me with one. it seems that L and her fiance B and I are not the only NDs in the village!

After years of indoctrination I felt very guilty (as writing on shabat is a taboo in Orthdox Judaism, especially in Shul) when I was asked to write down my contact details in the Church which had become a shul for the evening. I was made very welcome at the Kiddish (blessing over the Wine and Challa bread) afterwards. I have decided to increase my social network by embracing Liberal Judaism. My mum is very pleasamtly suprised and pleased as it as I could have decided to embrace Christianity or Islamism which would have realy upset her and is very curious about attending a liberal service.

Hege, Mony & Gramci

When It was realy hot earlier in the week i had my livingroom windows open. I heard a strange crackling sound and when I looked outside, I saw at first what looked like 2 fat rats eating the dried catfood I leave outside for Mac the stray entire mackrel Tomcat who begs food of me. I realised that it was two young hedhogs tucking into the cat buscuits. I have not done any gardening for ages and now have 3 wild hedgehogs living in the bush in my front garden. so I feed them every night and observe them. I have decided to call them Hegy, Mony and Gramci.
when I workout how to save my pictures of Hegy & Mony that I have taken on my Work mobile phoneI will provide a picture of them. My own cats Bella and Geraldine are not happy about the hedgehogs and Gordy had prickle shaped scratches on his nose. Mac is furious but can do nothing about it.

What a Contrast compared to the job feedback experience

On Wednesday, I delivered a 3 hour workshop on Dyspraxia/ ND awareness for the mental health Charity that I work for. I found that I was very nervous delivering training to people that I work with, especially in front of my boss, the PCT boss, 2 exective commitee members, colleuges and 2 members who are ND. I deliberatly missed out my autobigoraphical experiences and had prepared enough material for a day rather than 3 hours.
The session went very well and I got realy postive feedback from my boss and coleauges who all enjoyed my informal relaxed style of teaching. The few Criticism was the powerpoint handout had pages missing and was in the wrong order for two people. This was because I did not set the photocopy to collate and had to sort them out myself rather than waste paper by doing it all again.
This was a complete contrast to the interview feedback that I got at the Jewish Orthdox Special needs college. My Tutor from the PGCE now the PGDE has sent the college a letter say what a pity that the college missed an oportunity to employ a gifted and talented teacher!

Excuse me while I have a rant!!!

I applied for a part time Job a Jewish Orthodox special needs young adults with a wide range abilities college run by Gentile staff. I deliberately disclosed my dyspraxia in a positive way so that if this was a problem to my interviewees, they could find an excuse not to employ me. To avoid history from repeating itself and that I would be told that I was ‘a nice Girl but just not suitable’ and be back to square one with low self esteem and back on Incapacity Benefit. I had my suspicions when I asked for the application form in electronic format. I did not get it for 3 days so could not fill it in on my days off work and only had the weekend to do it before the Monday deadline, then email it to them. I was not allowed an extra day to fill in the form as getting the form late was a disadvantage. However I managed without getting anyone to proof read it or give me feedback to get short listed for an interview.

Part of the interview was to give a 20 min Micro teach on how to iron for entry level 1-3 in independent living skills which after an internet search I found was a BTEC Edexcel qualification. I found that this qualification involved other life skills tasks such as folding up clothes neatly etc, which in my opinion are not essential for a disabled persons independence and the course is merely another form of oppression to make disabled people conform to what the Government assumes is societies norm. Maybe if disabled people pass this it will save on direct payments and social services input if they pass this course it will prove that they are independent and save the labour government millions of pounds.

I am really appalled at the way I have been treated. Firstly although I differentiated my lesson plan to account for individual need and was not briefed until the last minute what my students needs were; it is ironic that by asking a dyspraxic person to teach other disabled people how to iron they did not differentiate the interview for me and set me up for failure when there were other tasks I could have taught them. When I got feedback from my interviewers, I was told that I was not selected because they had to stop my micro teach because a student had touched the hotplate. I did not realise this was why I had been stopped and though I was running over time. I had set the iron to medium to be on the safe side and as far as I could see the student did not touch the hotplate causing me to relive past experiences of being bullied at work and doubting my own judgement.

. I would have also had to conform to teaching in a Jewish Orthodox environment, which as a non practicing Jewess would have been against my nature as it would also be making them conform to something else that I find oppressive.

How dare they oppress me like that, when I have come so far!
They also told me that I had not shown that I had taught a wide range of needs and disabilities which is absolutely preposterous. I got no constructive criticism or positive feedback at all. They could have offered me more suitable work as they were looking for teacher in subjects such as personal development, self advocacy which would have suited my needs much better. So I’m glad I told them that I disclosed my dyspraxia to avoid any further oppression. I realise now that I have nothing to blame myself for and that the college’s disabling attitude set me up to fail.