The All Means All Scholarship so part of the Erasmus+ Programme was
an unexpected opportunity for me., but one that has enabled me to tick
of more that one of my goals (or outcomes if we are talking in the
language of sold directed support). For anyone that knows Y.O.U and I
you will know that Dublin was one of my goes to places, so not going to
lie that was the biggest appeal as the scholarship was hosted at
Maynooth University in Dublin
.
I might not have come back with the Irish man I always say I want, but
what I did come back with was international connections, experience of
being part of a scholarship and experience of producing an international
resource for teaching assistants which will hopefully be of more use than
any romantic relationship would be!
I found myself being a teacher of inclusion within an hour of arriving in
Dublin. This was due to a misunderstanding with my access needs and
the fact that I need something as simple as a bed with legs to get my
stand aid under. However, this was resolved, but now as easily as I
would have like as I had to end up staying in a hotel for the first night
and in the accessible room, I couldn’t use the shower due to a
step…...the same challenges just a different country!
The two weeks were spent with two very different groups of people, but
with the same end goal to write a chapter for the All Means All
International Resource. One of the chapters I was writing was about
Personal Assistants and Teach Assistants and the other was on
Transitions for School aged children and young people. It was strange
for me to be back in the world of academia, but also kind of nice and
didn’t long to settle back in. What it did do however, was make me
question my English despite having a higher English and a PhD. This
was primarily because English wasn’t the first language for a lot of my
colleagues, so at times I found myself mentally drained because I was
regularly putting English into context for them. I was also very aware that
whatever I told them they were taking my English back to Italy, Germany
and Greece, so it had to be right. After the two weeks I came back with
more work than what I left with as we are still working on the resource,
however having spent a week with each of my groups it is a lot easier
when we meet online now.
Dublin was a blast with it being Pride weekend, the weather was
scorching on that Saturday! I went to the wax work museum, shopping
and on a tour of the river Lifey which was full accessible. I also managed
to squeeze in traditional Irish dancing and heard some traditional music.
A lot of the shopping I done involved gift buying and I bought my first gift
for my niece who isn’t yet born, but when she arrives into the world she
will have a touch of Ireland around her with her first Teddy and one of
her first T-shirts that says “Someone who loves me bought me this t-shirt
from Dublin”.
It was important to me that my colleagues got to know Danielle and not
Danielle with a PA! One of my favourite photos that was taken I’m not
even in, but the photo illustrates inclusion well, it is of my colleagues
sitting under parasols in the rain with their jackets on as it was pouring it
down, but we weren’t sure if we could find another pub that could
accommodate our large group that was also accessible. Noone cared!
This is what All Mean All looks like