Travelling TA: The Perfect Weekend

It's been a really good weekend, rounded off quite perfectly today with my discovery of an email from the Museum Management and Curatorship Journal saying that they are going to publish the article I have written for them! The article is an adaptation of my Masters dissertation, on the repatriation of human remains from the British Museum and the Natural History Museum in London. I finished my Masters degree in 2012, then spent a long time re-writing my dissertation for publication. I submitted it in March 2014, and have had it back from the publishers twice for improvements. I submitted it once again in December 2014, and have now had it confirmed that it will be published. It's been a very long journey, and I am absolutely thrilled that it has finally come to an end with the perfect outcome! I'm not sure exactly when it will be published, as there are various procedures that need to be followed, such as copyright contracts, etc. Also, i'm not sure how far in advance papers are accepted before they are published, but I will let you all know when the journal is due out!

The week itself has been very busy with lots and lots of cover work! There is lots of sickness going around the teachers at the moment. My busiest day was Tuesday when I covered Year 6 Science in the morning, then Year 4 German, then Year 1 German, then Year 2 German! I was terrified about Year 2, not being part of that department (We are Years 3-6). I don't know any of the kids, and the obvious - not speaking the language I was meant to be teaching!

I came out of the lesson feeling really quite good. The kids were all well behaved! I told them that I couldn't speak German so I wouldn't be able to help them, then proceeded to prove this by reading a few lines of their work in a really dodgy German accent, making them howl with laughter. Their normal teacher came in to collect them for the next lesson, and said how quiet is was in there! She had warned me before hand that they could be quite boisterous. The teacher came up to me later saying that the kids had really enjoyed my lesson, and that I had tricked them into thinking that I spoke no German!!! So not only was the lesson a success, but I convinced them that I could speak a language that I can't! I think I should get some serious brownie points for that. It cheered me up on an otherwise fairly rubbish day of cover work.

Yesterday, Matt and I had a great day out. I had just decided that I am going to put myself forward for doing a PGCE next year at school, and we decided to have a day out to celebrate. I have wanted to go the the Neanderthal Museum since we moved here! I studied Neanderthals while doing my Archaeology degree, and have always had a bit of a soft spot for them, since they are what really fascinates me about Prehistory, and what got me really interested in Archaeology in the first place. Near to Dusseldorf is the Neander Valley, where the first European Neanderthal skeletons were found. There are not that many discoveries of Neanderthals across the world, so when they are found it is quite a big deal, and can often change how we view Prehistory entirely! Close to the discovery site is the Neanderthal Museum, which is all about the discovery of the skeletons, and about what we know about Neanderthals in general in terms of religious beliefs, burial practices, diet, methods of hunting, living arrangements etc. The museum is well laid out, and there are stations every so often that you can plug your headphones into to learn about a particular subject. These were in English too which is always useful!

The museum was great, and it was interesting to find out what Archaeologists have learnt in the few years since I finished studying Neanderthals myself.

Just a few hundred metres from the museum is a trail that leads to the original cave site where the first European Neanderthals were found. The valley isn't much of a gorge any more, it's fairly flat, so you have to use your imagination, but it was great to see a site that I have spent some time studying in a lecture hall many miles away, and several years ago!