Have been putting together some rough ideas for new t shirt logo designs this morning. I am now looking for a graphic artist to help turn my ideas into a reality...........
I went to a people per hour website where there are several thousand artists from all over the world selling their talents. I thought it would solve my problem. I have the ideas but not the artistic skills to realise them. Lots of very talented people from all over the world on that site selling their talents and skills and low cost.
With the Unique Dyslexic logo I had the idea for this in my playing about in my head for ages. I could see it in my minds eye. I did make quite a few rough sketches but didn't have the artistic training and skills to make the idea look professional. Luckily I gave my ideas to the Unique Dyslexic website designer and he had a good go at realising my idea.
Gawd, I thought the people per hour website would solve my problem but I got over 50 responses to my advert on the site and still more are coming through.
Also trying to write out the ideas you have in your mind is so much harder to do than talking about them face to face. Sigh think I will have to make a decision later today on who to hire.
Monday, 29 July 2013
Friday, 19 July 2013
Changes
There are very few certain things in life, I think there is an old saying that mentions birth, death and taxes. But there is one more certain thing in life and that's things never stay the same. Some of these things we have little or no influence over, some we have and some are both of these things.
Being dyslexic is one thing we cannot change because many dyslexics are born dyslexic and for me personally, today, I am very happy that I was born dyslexic. Of course it was not always so. When I was at school, oh we are talking 1963, when I started primary school there was no such thing as dyslexia. I don't even remember if there was anything like one to one learning support back then anyway.
Like many dyslexic kids I did struggle with some parts of my learning. My spelling and handwriting in particular I struggled with. Oh I did struggle with reading but I was lucky as my dad read to me from an early age and I gained a love of reading even though I was not exactly the quickest of reader. It got so bad with my handwriting that I just wouldn't write in front of anyone and was embarrassed every time I handed it work to my teachers. I had to write slouched over the page and cover what I was doing with my right arm lol. I couldn't chance or influence that and neither could my teachers.
I continued to struggle with my spelling, writing and reading all through my school life and eventually I got so sick of it I just stopped attending school when I was about 14. I still went to art and music classes, I enjoyed religious education, not because I am religious in any way, it was because we talked a lot about world issues, we debated and best of all it didn't involve much writing.
I would show up at school for art and music because I could express myself through both mediums. I had a love of reading by then because it sparked my imagination and that encouraged me to write stuff, poems, songs and short stories.
However, left school thinking I couldn't learn and was not very bright the inevitable happened and I left school with very few qualifications. Well I say that but I don't know because when my results came I just threw away the letter. I just thought I was not a good learner and just not very bright.
I don't remember anything about my self esteem or confidence levels but I certainly remember being an angry, frustrated teenager.
It was not until I was about 35 year old that I decided to go back to school and I found I had a love of learning. Oh I still struggled but I had some great teachers and we dyslexics, if we are anything at all, are determined individuals.
It was when I was in my second year of university I discovered I was dyslexic and this discovery changed everything for me. It was the start of a journey which enabled me to work with my dyslexic strengths, to understand myself as a dyslexic and place my struggles at school and with my dad into context.
But the biggest positive that came for being assessed was access to Disabled Students Allowance. It was a eureka moment as they say, I finally started to understand why I had not succeeded in school and why I had struggled. Once I began to understand this I found I could take control over my dyslexia instead of my dyslexia having control over me.
This enabled me to buy a computer and software and overnight my hand writing issue was no longer an issue. I found I could type as fast as everyone else. I was a dyslexic learner unchained lol.
Finding out I was dyslexic enabled me to overcome many barriers placed in front of me by society and many of the self imposed barriers I had placed in front of myself.
After passing my honours degree I went on to do a PGCE in Inclusive education. It was during this time I made it my mission to find out as much as I could about dyslexia. I was able to start working to my dyslexic strengths, to start overcoming barriers placed in front me by society and by myself.
Many medical and even dyslexia specialists experts, so called, would have us believe that being dyslexic makes us disabled, that we have a malfunctioning brain that we are different from the norm. Whatever norm might be. This discrepancy or medical model of dyslexia is something that needs to change. This is a model that fails dyslexics miserably in my view because it has so many negative connotations attached to it.
Dyslexia was only a disability in my case because I had no understanding about my dyslexia, because I didn't have access to the tools that would enable me to learn. In my case it was the keyboard and computer that unchained me from my own negative perceptions of myself as a learner.
Today our schools still fail far to many dyslexic kids, we are not taught in ways that enable us to access the learning that takes place in the classroom. Or access to the tools that enable us to read, write and learn effectively. Because of this still to many dyslexic kids leave school with little or no qualifications.
In my career as an inclusion and dyslexia specialist, gawd I hate that word specialist, I have come to the conclusion that dyslexia is not a disability. It is a neurological difference which has many positive attached to it. Dyslexics are big picture thinkers, we have strong empathy, we are determined, creative, great emotional intelligence. We are so many positive things yet we still have to live with a discrepancy model of dyslexia. A model that disables rather than enables.
Ok here is something to think about lol its a bit way out there and there is no way to prove it one way or another. Prehistoric humans were hunter gatherers. We know they were hunters because in many caves there a paintings of men hunting animals for food. We see this as prehistoric art and that's all it is.
But to hunt as a group successfully you have to have a plan, a strategy, a means to coordinated the hunt as well as pass this information on to future generations. Maybe this cave art is the work of early, big picture thinking, problem solving dyslexic prehistoric people planning a hunt or passing on knowledge to future generations etc.
Being dyslexic in a society that uses art in such a way would make being dyslexic in that society a big positive and so the dyslexic gene got passed on and still remains with us today.
Ok so it might be a little bit X Files but who knows?
I
Being dyslexic is one thing we cannot change because many dyslexics are born dyslexic and for me personally, today, I am very happy that I was born dyslexic. Of course it was not always so. When I was at school, oh we are talking 1963, when I started primary school there was no such thing as dyslexia. I don't even remember if there was anything like one to one learning support back then anyway.
Like many dyslexic kids I did struggle with some parts of my learning. My spelling and handwriting in particular I struggled with. Oh I did struggle with reading but I was lucky as my dad read to me from an early age and I gained a love of reading even though I was not exactly the quickest of reader. It got so bad with my handwriting that I just wouldn't write in front of anyone and was embarrassed every time I handed it work to my teachers. I had to write slouched over the page and cover what I was doing with my right arm lol. I couldn't chance or influence that and neither could my teachers.
I continued to struggle with my spelling, writing and reading all through my school life and eventually I got so sick of it I just stopped attending school when I was about 14. I still went to art and music classes, I enjoyed religious education, not because I am religious in any way, it was because we talked a lot about world issues, we debated and best of all it didn't involve much writing.
I would show up at school for art and music because I could express myself through both mediums. I had a love of reading by then because it sparked my imagination and that encouraged me to write stuff, poems, songs and short stories.
However, left school thinking I couldn't learn and was not very bright the inevitable happened and I left school with very few qualifications. Well I say that but I don't know because when my results came I just threw away the letter. I just thought I was not a good learner and just not very bright.
I don't remember anything about my self esteem or confidence levels but I certainly remember being an angry, frustrated teenager.
It was not until I was about 35 year old that I decided to go back to school and I found I had a love of learning. Oh I still struggled but I had some great teachers and we dyslexics, if we are anything at all, are determined individuals.
It was when I was in my second year of university I discovered I was dyslexic and this discovery changed everything for me. It was the start of a journey which enabled me to work with my dyslexic strengths, to understand myself as a dyslexic and place my struggles at school and with my dad into context.
But the biggest positive that came for being assessed was access to Disabled Students Allowance. It was a eureka moment as they say, I finally started to understand why I had not succeeded in school and why I had struggled. Once I began to understand this I found I could take control over my dyslexia instead of my dyslexia having control over me.
This enabled me to buy a computer and software and overnight my hand writing issue was no longer an issue. I found I could type as fast as everyone else. I was a dyslexic learner unchained lol.
Finding out I was dyslexic enabled me to overcome many barriers placed in front of me by society and many of the self imposed barriers I had placed in front of myself.
After passing my honours degree I went on to do a PGCE in Inclusive education. It was during this time I made it my mission to find out as much as I could about dyslexia. I was able to start working to my dyslexic strengths, to start overcoming barriers placed in front me by society and by myself.
Many medical and even dyslexia specialists experts, so called, would have us believe that being dyslexic makes us disabled, that we have a malfunctioning brain that we are different from the norm. Whatever norm might be. This discrepancy or medical model of dyslexia is something that needs to change. This is a model that fails dyslexics miserably in my view because it has so many negative connotations attached to it.
Dyslexia was only a disability in my case because I had no understanding about my dyslexia, because I didn't have access to the tools that would enable me to learn. In my case it was the keyboard and computer that unchained me from my own negative perceptions of myself as a learner.
Today our schools still fail far to many dyslexic kids, we are not taught in ways that enable us to access the learning that takes place in the classroom. Or access to the tools that enable us to read, write and learn effectively. Because of this still to many dyslexic kids leave school with little or no qualifications.
In my career as an inclusion and dyslexia specialist, gawd I hate that word specialist, I have come to the conclusion that dyslexia is not a disability. It is a neurological difference which has many positive attached to it. Dyslexics are big picture thinkers, we have strong empathy, we are determined, creative, great emotional intelligence. We are so many positive things yet we still have to live with a discrepancy model of dyslexia. A model that disables rather than enables.
Ok here is something to think about lol its a bit way out there and there is no way to prove it one way or another. Prehistoric humans were hunter gatherers. We know they were hunters because in many caves there a paintings of men hunting animals for food. We see this as prehistoric art and that's all it is.
But to hunt as a group successfully you have to have a plan, a strategy, a means to coordinated the hunt as well as pass this information on to future generations. Maybe this cave art is the work of early, big picture thinking, problem solving dyslexic prehistoric people planning a hunt or passing on knowledge to future generations etc.
Being dyslexic in a society that uses art in such a way would make being dyslexic in that society a big positive and so the dyslexic gene got passed on and still remains with us today.
Ok so it might be a little bit X Files but who knows?
I
Thursday, 18 July 2013
More good news
Dyslexia Pathways has just won a funding award for our new Unique Dyslexic Project. We got an award for just over £1,600 from Foundation Scotland. The award is going to be used to purchase some new equipment which is going to be used on the Unique Dyslexic Project and also enable us to deliver or Being Positive about Dyslexia awareness training package. Many thanks to Foundation Scotland for this award.
Now I am going to see if I can find some funding to pay for the creative master classes for the Unique Dyslexic project here in Fife. I am hoping to run three in different areas of Fife. Each session will run for 3 hours and the idea is to get creative dyslexics together and exploring their creativity and developing a peer support groups. I will also be providing some free computer based dyslexia screenings as well.
They can also explore and find our more about the positive aspects of being dyslexic and enhance their self esteem, self confidence and resilience.
I received some great news from a student I was giving dyslexia support to this year. She had passed her Honours Degree course and will be going on to a Master Degree next year. When I first met this student her confidence and self esteem were not in a good place. She was struggling with finding and keeping a focus on her work and with self management. Have to say she worked very hard to overcome these issues and I am very pleased she achieved her goals. Much of the time I worked with her went into mentoring and counselling. Always great to get good news like this.
I have been looking into setting up a new bank account for Dyslexia Pathways. Its an account for funding awards and has duel signatories because of this. Have to say I have found this very difficult to do. So many forms, so much information and all having to be written by hand, all very dyslexia unfriendly lol. Especially the hand writing thing sigh. I have a Master degree but if you looked at my handwriting you would think I was 9 years old. I can only write in upper case single letters one at a time. Very time consuming and frustrating and tiring. Still its nearly done and will be ready to send off by Monday. Have to give a big thanks to my wife who has been a great help with this.
Now I am going to see if I can find some funding to pay for the creative master classes for the Unique Dyslexic project here in Fife. I am hoping to run three in different areas of Fife. Each session will run for 3 hours and the idea is to get creative dyslexics together and exploring their creativity and developing a peer support groups. I will also be providing some free computer based dyslexia screenings as well.
They can also explore and find our more about the positive aspects of being dyslexic and enhance their self esteem, self confidence and resilience.
I received some great news from a student I was giving dyslexia support to this year. She had passed her Honours Degree course and will be going on to a Master Degree next year. When I first met this student her confidence and self esteem were not in a good place. She was struggling with finding and keeping a focus on her work and with self management. Have to say she worked very hard to overcome these issues and I am very pleased she achieved her goals. Much of the time I worked with her went into mentoring and counselling. Always great to get good news like this.
I have been looking into setting up a new bank account for Dyslexia Pathways. Its an account for funding awards and has duel signatories because of this. Have to say I have found this very difficult to do. So many forms, so much information and all having to be written by hand, all very dyslexia unfriendly lol. Especially the hand writing thing sigh. I have a Master degree but if you looked at my handwriting you would think I was 9 years old. I can only write in upper case single letters one at a time. Very time consuming and frustrating and tiring. Still its nearly done and will be ready to send off by Monday. Have to give a big thanks to my wife who has been a great help with this.
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