This has blown up over on my FB, I don’t know how best to reproduce it here but it’s worth a read. Women don’t know this stuff because it’s not researched, it’s just ‘known’ by clinicians, but they can only act when women speak. It needs a public health campaign
#menopause
South London friends, please can you share this poster? Raheem is my nephew and the photo of him with my cat was taken ten months ago. He’s still a boy. We are worried sick.
Two knights of the road (one who came to fix my tyre, one who was a passer by) got me going again.
I offered money, in that clumsy well-meaning Yorkshire way.
They each refused. “We are Muslim,” they said. “And Muslims help people.”
I promised to pass it on. So please let me
The only women on my TL who knew about this had either had the experience themselves or were clinicians. Because menopause is under-researched, it can’t have a public health campaign so telling each other is the only way we’ll know: please RT women AND men 🙏🏼
Wow. Way too tired to open this. Emotional. Six years and 12 grand. Many corrections ahead, no doubt but for now...I’m done. Would not have made it this far without you all - thank yous tomorrow. For now I’m too tired even for Prosecco
#PhD
So I know many of you have lived through the many stages of this (graduation to come!) 💛
But it’s official! Working class Dr!!
@AcademicsClass
#WCConf21
Big day for me and the
#Bowerbird
Passed my
#PhD
with minor corrections but that’s not the story. The story is:
We were heard 💙
We were seen 💙
We were valued 💙
Extraordinary viva experience. Gratitude to
@AmslerSarah
@cherylren
@HudCRES
Watch this space for appreciation💙
I don't give a flying fk about calling myself Dr but if I pass my viva next year no misogynist half-wit is going to take that right away from me.
Six years. £12k on my credit card. £0 in my bank account.
#justsaying
#workingclassacademic
#PhD
We sat in traffic on Blackfriars Bridge for 30 minutes and watched thousands of people who believe in the power of protest crossing Waterloo Bridge with their flags and flares.
We didn’t see the start or the end of the line in that time.
Don’t ever believe that people don’t
Absolutely not everyone’s cup of tea but I love my wild garden. Spent the day surrounded by birds, bees, butterflies and lil creatures, also my cat 🐝🦋🐛🪱🐞🐀🐦⬛
Staycation = staying at home because you’re too skint to go on holiday, with the odd treat or day trip.
UK holiday = going on holiday in the UK.
Only people who have never been that skint get the two mixed up I suspect 🙄
Utterly humbled that not far short of 10k people shared the post about Raheem, my missing nephew.
Raheem has been in touch. We still don’t know where he is and we’re a long way yet from a happy ending, but we are feeling more hopeful. You got us through the weekend thank you 🙏🏼
Thanks to everyone for heart-lifting congrats on getting my PhD in and all the love and support as I wrestled impostor syndrome yesterday, I’m just reading them all 💛
Waking up with nothing particular to do and with my boy nearby is just 👌🏻
Feeling a little generalised anxiety today, don’t want to go too far but recognising some of this stuff 👇🏻
Tips for a gently productive day at home please, Twitter 🙏🏼
I’ll amplify.
Teaching is not a delivery system, it’s an art form.
And like all art forms, you gather your materials, take inspiration from what’s gone before…and create something new each time.
#JoyFE
💛
22/3 My graduation. A day of chosen family ❤️
Learning: to believe in myself and in the inexhaustible possibilities of a different world and in my potentia to not only imagine but - with others - take us there. A deep sense of conviction and also humility.
@prisonculture
Such a tiny thing, but a colleague offered me a lift to the airport, so that I wouldn’t start a significant journey alone. Meant worlds
@lisaslimmingwo1
Yesterday I was low, anxious and a bit paranoid, having been perfectly fine the day before. Today I just ran ten miles and I’m elated. These mood swings are my new normal in
#lockdown
and I’m grateful for the kindness of people around me. Hope I return it 💛
#MHAW20
#BeKind
OK here it is. My PhD mass obs survey. Feel like I've just tipped the contents of my knicker drawer out into the public domain. Whether you've ever been involved in community ed or not, please complete (5 mins) and reshare using
#FEImaginary
THANK YOU 🙏
No surprise that this is a proud mam post, after all I’m proud of
@frasermycroft
every single day for the man he is and the way he conducts himself in the world 💛
But this is specific pride. I’ve been at the end of the phone as he writes up his research dissertation for the
I can finally announce I’ll be speaking at the inaugural
@TEDxDoncaster
on Sunday 13th October. Appreciating the critical friendship of rigorous preparation, you’ll see the best of me yet! Talking
#EthicsofJoy
Tickets
I whole-heartedly did the
#clapforcarers
thing and I'm not ashamed - stuck in my house I was celebrating my friends and family, it was a joyful giving that was the least I could do. I'm no Tory, but I was hopeful. Today's news, however you spin it, is a kick in the teeth.
The
@NHSMillion
saved my boy. You are disparaged and dismantled and you are still the brightest jewel in our crown (deliberate analogy) 👑
Thank you Guys and St Thomas and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU. Proud to have
#NHS
on my CV.
I am so excited to have been nominated for an
@EduFuturists
award - best of all in the Staff Wellbeing category 💛💛💛 for the brilliant (and not just me)
#JoyFE
💛
This is a shameless plug to please vote for me 😂
Took a little time out today to get a Charlie’s Angels hairdo and have me tea but I’m back on it now, really looking forward to feeling like a proper student working late into the night 👊🏻 this is almost better than 15% off at the Apple Store and the Student Art Pass!
#PhDLife
I’m going to speak plainly.
When I read that TES is stopping coverage of
#FE
I hear disrespect, disinterest and exclusion of colleagues who have found their voice over the past 18 months in particular.
All the more reason to
#RiseUp
via our own publications. It’s a disgrace.
Been thinking about
@SirKenRobinson
He didn't change education did he? Even him - witty, eloquent, influential. He inspired many of us as teachers, but there are limits to our subversion. We can only see it through together. Less 'I' and more 'we'. Let's amplify each other 💛
Today it’s my birthday and I’m living an
#EthicsOfBirthdayJoy
in every moment 💛
Started with the best possible news. My friend’s missing daughter (for a week!) has been found safe and well.
Now for Tai Chi online class 🧘♀️
Reminder that the game of football doesn’t itself batter women and piss in the streets. That’s
#toxicmasculinity
you’re looking for.
Yes lots to change in the culture around football, particularly
#homophobia
This team in its explicit social justice message is making a start
So excited to have my first work in Scotland🏴 today. I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that the long-term plan is to move up here near my boy ❤️ feels like a lovely first step.
I’m noticing how many people around me - and me! - are struggling with mental health. It’s an epidemic. I’m a DM away and I’m a great listener. It’s good to talk
#MentalHealthMatters
#PandemicFlux
Look at this happy boy 💛
I’ve got his permission to say that not only did he create a piece of research which is heartbreakingly beautiful, which writes working-class stories into anthropology, he got a distinction in his Research Masters!
You’re a superstar
@FraserMycroft
⭐️
What if she’s the one, the person who makes a difference? Who makes us nicer? Who stops us reading/buying the tabloid shite? She wasn’t the best person in the world but who of us is? Certainly not me. Now there would be something worth living for
#CarolineFlack
Weighing in as a working class
#Fleabag
fan...I don’t need to see socio-cultural aspects of my life mirrored to be able to relate to something on a human level.
*Emerges from
#PhD
cave as soon-to-be officially Dr Lou*
I owe thanks and it's also time to unleash my research on the world, ready or not.
6 years, 80k words, 10 practice values, 5 lines of flight.
An activist project. Padlet open - add your stuff!
I have just had the most beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered by a young man who was very careful not to say where they came from.
They are so perfectly me - thistles, herbs! - that I could have chosen each bloom myself.
They said, “Thank you for being you.” 💛
Reflecting that loneliness is still quite a taboo; at least, talking about our own loneliness, rather than that of unspecified others. I notice people pretending not to hear.
Normalise talking about it, because I bet many of us are lonely sometimes. Doesn’t make us losers.
Normalise being open about
#freelancer
day rates.
I charge £600/day and £350/half day for facilitation, £500 for a talk.
On or offline, it’s the same work.
I wish I could easily teach people how to disagree agreeably.
There’s real joy (and skill) in being able to express an opinion without demeaning those who disagree. And if you’re judgmental on the inside, it takes a *lot* of communication skill to hide it on the outside 💛
Yesterday marked 100 days alcohol free and yet another joyful day, I am very blessed. Mind you, there's a big glass of wine with my name on it when I go to Edinburgh next week for
@FraserMycroft
's graduation. Is there anyone left out there who I haven't told he got a First? 😂💃
Out of office is ON 😍
Now to fettle the house in the sunshine.
Can’t promise not to sneak a look at Twitter but scheduled me is ready to roll and notifications are OFF
Norfolk and family time…here I come!
Sending joyful love out into the Twittersphere 💛🎄❤️ however your day looks, I hope you feel the love of friends, family, strangers and passing acquaintances today
#JoyfulTogether
💛 here’s a happy boy and an angry cat 😾
I need to take some personal time over the next few days. If I’m due to meet with you I’ll be in touch very soon to rearrange. Thank you for understanding ❤️
#RadicalRest
People who say a
#PhD
is useless often have privilege. I can remember a very posh older friend explaining to me years ago that it was "an indulgence."
6 years and £12k to learn to be a thinker in this day and age doesn't feel like an indulgence, it feels like a necessity
#MyPhD
Hopefully I’ve got the right day this time!
Off to London to record a podcast for my wonderful friends at
@TheSleepCharity
about
#ADHD
and sleep.
I’ll be sharing some of the self-revelation that has meant I’ve finally got some ease and balance in my life (even when I turn up
Listen to employers but please don’t call emotional and social literacy “soft skills”. The language we use shapes the way we think and we diminish what we most need in society now by using that term 🙏🏼
#WorldMentalHealthDay
I can hand on heart say that I don’t know how I would have got through the last 18 months without
@JoyfulFE
💛 my cat and the power of social media connection to deepen relationships with my wonderful friends and fam. Appreciate you all 🙏🏼
This week I’ve done two Clubbercise classes, yoga, Pilates, dancing and a run. And I’ve finished a book chapter, two pieces of journalism, scheduled a month of tweets, written a report, some marketing copy, done some coaching and 5000 words of my
#PhD
I ❤️ being at home
The most fabulous thing about a working class education is that it’s full of holes 🧀
I can spend the rest of my life discovering stuff like the Camus quote in my previous tweet and how to pronounce ‘hegemony’ (and never get bored of learning).
Also I’m an excellent scrapper 😌
I've just applied for a super-exciting opportunity, which feels like it brings together all that I am ❤️
Appreciation for
@TutorStacey_AP
's encouragement and loving support in the
#BowerbirdWritingRooms
this evening.
Keep everything crossed for me. I'd do this work for
A president-elect who is a decent man, who loves Séamus Heaney ☺️ who believes in fairness and who has an FE teacher wife and an awesome female running mate whom he treats with respect and equality. The world feels just a little safer today.
If you can watch this without weeping, you're a stronger man than I am. I doubt Trump has ever heard the name of poet Seamus Heaney. This is the Irish news.
Thanks to everyone for love, support and distraction over the past week 💛
A combo of stress and grief left my brain in
#ADHD
overwhelm and it's been hard to come back. Now at least in third gear and slowly starting to spin the plates.
Being here helps
@FircroftCollege
💛
Every teacher I speak to tells me teachers need more time.
Every Twitter convo I see tells me teachers need more money.
Extra money can buy more time. Where can we have *this* conversation?
Not saying it’s easy. It’s a decision we make a million times a day, to resist misery, to resist exploitation, to resist oppression and to endure with hope. Putting my out of office on with love and gratitude to
#JoyFE
💛
Let's make a deal pals. One tweet to express devastation/glee then how about we work together?
Critical. Respectful. Engage in difficult conversations whilst listening + keeping an open mind. Activist across political divides.
Be kind.
Find joy in one another.
Shall we do it?
Delighted that Professor Maggie Gregson’s
#ARPCE22
keynote starts with Mary Midgley’s claim that we are not “supernatural Lego” but animals who have a “deep mutual dependence” with the earth and non-human entities
#Posthuman
So I have literally just got out of bed. Massive adrenaline crash after huge day yesterday. House looks like a crack den. Last day of quarantine. But no migraine, no fever, no Painful Skeleton. And Little El is well. RESULT 🦠
Study leave starts today ⭐️
I don’t have this view, but I do have everything I need and it’s such a different vibe going into this
#PhD
viva.
There will be less social media but also maybe a desire to connect.
Rest well if you can this half term (if you have it) and take care.
Is theatre getting better or am I choosing better? Can’t remember the last time I *didn’t* leap to my feet at the end of a performance. Matthew Bourne’s
#SwanLake
was awesome tonight
@SheffieldLyceum
🦢