St. George’s College (Week #78) – Day #359

Date for Entry: (Thursday 12 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 15 September 2024)

[T1, W:02 – WD:09, (Td:1)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning felt worse than yesterday morning. Christmas songs were being played on the bus and I sang along. I got on that particular bus as soon as it crossed the road to me. Daddy thought I would have walked across the other side with him. I jumped on the bus one time and had the umbrella in hand before exiting to walk down 6^th Avenue.

    I had breakfast as soon as I got in and saw Jess enter the staff room. She saw me eating and said that she would be in warning. When I got there, the students were copying the lyrics to the George's College song. I went to get a copy of the score from my folder. The students walked through the words rhythmically first and then started singing the song with each sentence.

    The children did very well on their first attempt in my opinion. It was made better than the previous year's groups. I hope they didn't see this in my journal entry, LOL. One boy with glasses was given that copy for the rest of the class to take a picture of it. A very small boy mentioned that she saw my video of the George anthem on my YouTube channel. I am grateful for his subscription.

    Once this class time was over departmental meeting was conducted during the third period and at the end of the first half of the fourth period. They were planning a series of competitions and the ideas of the Schools’ Panorama. This I knew was trouble and didn't want to get involved in it. The meeting finished abruptly as well. As soon as it was done Miss Roberts came in. She said that she was leaving on Tuesday. I will have to start work for church tomorrow while working on cleaning the gallery in the evening.

    No sign of a new timetable in sight. Maybe it will be discussed next week. “Jess” and I had 3F for a double session after recess. Still a big surprise as to what she will be teaching. She corrected the exam papers for the end of form 2. Miss Jones did her theory session on the wall side of the classroom. Thankfully the wild students of that class were gone from music class. It was nice to know that there is a photography club. I learned from “Mr. Williams” earlier that there was a Latin club with Miss Chote. I'm not sure if it is her language club. If it is I will have to learn the Latin language.

    During lunchtime, Miss Alexander said that she was going to continue sorting books on Monday because she was tired. The art room was still in a mess but they are getting there. I saw a boy with a big stab wound in his left arm. The blood got very scary to look at.

    Right after lunch, Jess had asked me to go and help her with the inventory of things to fix in the music room. I saw Robert's teaching 2M on the way back to the staff room. I think she was teaching a dotted notes lesson. I had enough waiting for that afternoon. Hunger took over me and tiredness as well. I packed up and went up the road before the rain came down. Seemed to be a very cloudy afternoon.

    Getting into the car Aunty Vangie was calling me to see if I needed a drop home. I told her that I was already in Curepe. I had a Muslim barbecue that night and it was so good. By 5 pm I was at a computer working on little something by Sting. But I ended up falling asleep on the couch at 5.15 until 6 am the very next morning. (Did not make it to bed until Friday night. Tomorrow is no school. The compound will be sprayed for mosquitoes.)

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(9:30 am – 3:11 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #78) – Day #358

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 11 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 15 September 2024)

[T1, W:02 – WD:08, (Td:6)*].

Dear Diary,

    For both Daddy and I, we had a late sleep, late waking, and late get up. He had to knock on my window a second time. My four eyelids were swollen again. Thought I would have gotten to the staff room way late. Not many teachers were there still. A lot of people were watching me with my umbrella in my hand walking down 6th Avenue. I was greeted by “Mr. Haynes” again as we walked down to a school.

    I got my entry for yesterday completed first before eating. Miss Gittens told me her hair was tied back up when I mentioned how it matched mine. She went with Miss Greenaway to take roll. There was confusion about religious instruction for today, but Mr. Pierre said that it would begin on Friday. A few of the instructors had to leave after coming out of school.

    Shiva was trying to make conversation with me. He saw me writing in the logbook and wondered what was inside of it. It was a while since Miss Roberts came back to school. The School Supervisor 3, Dr. Lubian-Batiste, was here in our staff room. It was good to see her again. It reminded me of Mr. Persad and the teacher's leave form.

    There was a long wait for 3rd period to come. I was remembering the 1-8 challenges that “Jess” was doing with the children. We had a class with 2F after. It was very nice to see “Ravin” again as he greeted me and “Pablo” too. 2L and 2M had no teachers with them. We went through the test paper for questions 1-2 before “Jess” went on to the numbers challenge to break. There were 7 minutes before recess.

    Donna said that she found I was not talking as much again. Somehow the holiday nightmare was written on my facial expression. Jess and Roberts were speaking about the school song and the Panama dance competition. They were talking about sitting in with the form 6 students when they come to school when she would be absent from the country. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I hope that God bless “Jess “with ideas as to how to carry on class with them. Mrs Libert was given a picture of the notice for the spraying tomorrow.

    During the recess, Mr. Charles announced that the Clerk of Works responsible for air conditioning was there. I couldn't sit there to listen to “Jess” and the others with their big noise. I went up to the library instead and sorted out all the WI and NF books that were within the 900s. There were a lot of books in the 970s. Two large tables were used up to do the sorting and 1 circular table. At some point too a form 6 couple was helping me. They abandoned me at some point and one girl came to help at the end.

    At 1.03 pm I finally sat back down in the office behind my desk. I heard the sound of a different woman's voice as I was writing in my journal. I knew she was not a ministry worker with the SS3. As she spoke again it was Miss Paul that I recognized. I helped her carry her cabinet belongings to her car while Riley and “Mr. Danclare” were assisted. The two of us spoke a while before she left the compound. It was strange how I thought of her in the car this morning with Daddy carrying me to Curepe and she came to school today.

    Everyone in the staffroom was told that Friday would be no school for the mosquitoes spraying. Class for the Form 4 students began in the hall. The students were given an exercise to write an introduction about themselves for their SBA and were given another exercise to start planning questions for their interview with either the composer or the other assignment.

    After that, notes were given for elements of music and genres were cut off at the end of class. (See logbook for the note-taking.) The students had to type up their introduction and then were asked to work on more questions for their performance analysis or analysis of a live concert. No one at all was planning to do the eight advertisements.

    I went back upstairs to the library to get a picture of the 900s that I had sorted today. Thankfully Miss Alexander was still there and she allowed me to take a picture. As Miss was about to leave she said to come with her for a ride in Mr. Raymond's car. On the highway, a heavy shower of rain came down on us. It caused us to get stuck in traffic behind UWI. They were heading in my direction.

    Daddy had to come up afterwards because I had forgotten my keys in the house. I took an hour to myself on the couch and got up at 5 p.m. until 8 in the night to work on “Right By My Side” and thank God it was completed. Even better news was that the other arrangement “Another Day in Paradise” strumming pattern for the verse was done over. And the chorus was taken. This song too finished within 45 minutes by a nice copy and paste. I was so glad to get both songs accomplished. Plenty of nights of work were put in and over 5 days were taken to work on them.

    The “Another Day in Paradise” arrangement was not so hot for me, it would be workable for the instructor and the performer. I got levels of games completed before bed. Whisper is making me start to feel like the previous times when I wanted to delete it and move away. I might just end up leaving it again for a fifth time. Not sure what the app Discord is like.

    I saw Jasmine message me a reminder to check out the worksheet-making website. I told her last night, the previous night, but it was the zeal to get both steel pan arrangements done tonight was the feeling. Hopefully tomorrow night I will take up the opportunity to check out the worksheet website. She had also asked me to work on two of the other folk songs for steelpan that the Form 2 students had reviewed last academic year. I hope that maybe at the weekend I will be able to get one of them completed or started on for the most.

 

LINK(S):

• St. George's Memo - Spraying for Mosquitoes.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:46 am – 3:30 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #78) – Day #357

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 10 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 15 September 2024)

[T1, W:02 – WD:07, (Td:5)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning was not easy to wake up. I left the house at 7.10 am. The staff room was empty. Not many teachers were there at all. I got my pie eaten right next to Miss Gitten's. I got all of my entries for yesterday completed and forgot that I had a class with 1M. I got there while introductions were going on. I got to introduce myself shortly after.

    Towards the end of the session, 10 minutes was taken for the 1-8 challenge again. This time a soca beat from a song by Kes was used. We had 3F right after. It was my first time having a single period. I went to call Miss Jones in her theatre arts room. It was in a mess and she didn't have help to get it cleaned up. “Jay” and I walked from 3F and walked back to class after speaking with Miss.

    Once Miss Jones got to 3F, she and “Jess” did the splitting of class. The single period was finished and it ran into Dr. Allison's English A class. I could tell it was English A because she had the “English For All” textbooks in her hand. How I wished they made a better textbook. It was nice to see Mr. Dass arrive at school finally.

    The staff room was nice to be with the teachers again. Miss Gitten's had someone helping her clear out the room. I learned that his name was Mr. Joe and near the end of school he was trying to see if he could fix the air condition unit. Sadly, it looked like they would need a new one but he will try to source the parts.

    From the fifth period to 1.30 pm, I went to the library instead since Miss Jones didn't know what she was going to do with her variety of bags in the room. Her storeroom also had to be cleaned out. Miss Alexander asked if I was willing to work on the teacher's resources section. Two shelves of books were sorted out and set into alphabetical order. They were first sorted by their Dewey Decimal Number.

    These were all of the fiction and romance books that Miss did not want the children to deal with. I was able to get a picture of the shelf and the sorted books that I had done for the day. Miss had a laugh at me taking a picture. I was invited to come back tomorrow for more sorting by Miss Alexander.

    At 1.50 pm my arrived back into the staff room. Miss Gitten wasn't feeling so good. I got her a good bag from the garbage to put her ceramic trash in. I took my ambulance and walked up to the bus route. There were a lot of dark clouds coming around and I didn't want to get wet. A student from perhaps earlier in Form 1 met me with a parent on the way up.

    For me, at Mount Hope, the rain finally came. I kept my umbrella with me in my hand. Eight Georgian students were there on the bus leaving Georges. I was the last one to leave the bus at Curepe. Praise to God that the introductions for “Right By My Side” and “Another Day in Paradise” were both completed.

    “Right By My Side” will have their chorus to work on with a different strumming pattern. The song “Another Day in Paradise” was given a strum to be reviewed before I attempted the first verse. I stayed up enjoying the television show “Miraculous” on the Disney channel. I saw the first two episodes of 4 for the night and went to bed. The evening ended very quickly.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:58 am – 3:58 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #78) – Day #356

Date for Entry: (Monday 09 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 15 September 2024)

[T1, W:02 – WD:06, (Td:4)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning, the bus driver had songs played by Brooke Lidgertwood, then two from Tasha Cobbs, and finally two from another lady. The guy in yellow stopped early. The beard cut was nice. The road to George's was empty, and a few teachers were still there. “Gigi,” Mr. Raymond, and “Mel” were there. I had my pie after signing the arrival time in the daily logbook.

    This will be my fourth logbook for journal entries in activities in school. Thankfully, it began with a new week. On a brighter note, this week has twelve weeks after. Mr. Raymond got my stapler to staple his rulebook together. Miss Dana did not like having to staple her book. I agree that it should have been done for them instead of teachers having to do it.

    The teacher's attendance register was missing for the morning. Miss Carty was hood-asking for the 2F rulebook folder. Soon the attendance book was found. Jess said that she was going to check to see if the Form 6 students had come to school. When she returned, I figured that they weren't there. “Patty” came asking for help with her rulebook. It seems as if the white page was oversized and it was also printed badly. If I had the technology, I would have done the entire whole document over.

    I went over to help Miss Gittens with cleaning the art room. Miss Roberts laughed at me when I said I was tired. My phone alarm went off at 9.36 for me to pack up and get ready for class. “Mr. Marlon” assisted me with the directions to get to the 4L classroom with the Form 4 students.

    Today's session was reviewing paper 3 of the Music Syllabus for CSEC. We got an idea of the students' preference in the written work and it was good to know that they were in an intermediate level of performance. Determining the appropriate grade level would be next. Each of the 4 students was given homework to practice F Major, C Major, G Major and D Major skills along with their arpeggios.

    I happened to enjoy being seated in the Georgian classroom. I think I would have enjoyed it. Made me wonder what it would have been like for Amir Andrews, Amir and the others here at George's. “Jess” and I had 2L right after recess. All the teachers seemed to have forgotten. Jess went through the Form 1 end-of-term exam for questions 1 and 2. Questions 3 and 4 will have to be done in the next class. She ended with a content TikTok challenge. Miss Kittens joined me outside to see the last of it before lunchtime.

    The office was still in a mess. I saw some MTS workers in the office helping out. Mr Charles and Shiva were sharing with me the story of how the guard boat was built by “9 hardback” men and took “an entire year from January to December to complete.” They mentioned it was a full year to build that small building. I had a big laugh with them.

    Some men were there to check the labs. I hoped the repairs required would be fixed soon enough for the classes to continue. I believe some of them were there about the electrical works for the whole building that housed the music room. There were also more murmurs about issues with the timetable and teachers allotted classes that clashed with their Form 4 and 5 groupings.

    After that time everyone was watching the rain and bright lightning outside. Mr. Charles made a joke about Lisa leaving with Shiva and we laughed. She accidentally responded that the office had no toilet paper and everyone laughed again. The story of Barataria and no toilet paper was shared again with the judge's toilet paper room. Aunty Vandrie came to pick me up some minutes after school.

    Surprisingly the rain had stopped and the sun came out hot. We went to the home store which is right down the road on 6th Avenue. I loved the paintings, curtains, mats, mirrors and a lot of other stuff. The prices were a lot though. They had a huge floral section which I may have never been able to pick one if I had to.

    We then went to ABC for paint and spent two and a half hours there with a girl who looked just like Miss Roberts. Another attendant was helping out Diego and he resembled Gin from the Love Island game but seemed a bit different instead. He didn't talk much but he also dressed like Gin. We walked through the lights aisle and got our way up to the back by the paint section.

    I got home that evening at 5.30 after there and went quickly to have dinner and get started on music. The introduction for “Ride by my Side” and “Another Day in Paradise” were worked on. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to work on two skid pan arrangements at the same time. However, the mentally tiring aspect of both songs and their requirement of concentration seemed to be doing me well with this decision.

    All of the repeats made me feel like I was in a panyard trying to get the right rhythm and the right sound in my living room. The sound produced by Musescore 4 was amazing. The difficulty getting the strumming patterns was far on the other side of amazing. Hopefully, it will be solved and accomplished soon.

    Whisper Tonight was lonely and everyone else didn't respond. Love Island Finals and Reunion were our last two episodes. Sienna and Luna both had hate towards the main character. Liam changed into a new person. I was glad for him. Emel, Oakley, Bea and Logan had split up their relationships.

    Sophie reacted to everything and had no idea that her relationship with Jack was long before they were dumped from the island. She admitted to everyone that she had something for Jin. Hari and Max didn't come again. They commented that some toxic persons in the villa weren’t worth the time being there. There's one more episode to go. Not sure what will happen or what drama will take place at all.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:42 am – 2:55 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #77) – Day #355

Date for Entry: (Friday 06 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 08 September 2024)

[T1, W:01 – WD:05, (Td:3)*].

Dear Diary,

    I got to Georgia's late this morning. Not many teachers were around in this staff room too. I got to eat first and then handed over the students' forms to Ms. Rivas instead. She said that she would use the form for next week. When I asked why, she also mentioned that the school does not keep a record of students' numbers. She said that she would white out the dates and fix them for next week. I then went on to fill my resumption form out.

    “Jess” said that we would have to go and check the forms next to them. We took a spin by the cafe first. She spent time chatting with Mrs. Santana. MMT meeting was going on with a different SS3. This was a lady. It seems as though Mr. Persard was not coming this morning. The timetable was also going to be worked on again. No students were in the Form 6 classes too.

    While heading back to the staffroom, I saw that Mr. Ustache was trying to set up the office area. I would have stayed with him and helped him, but I knew that I would have had to go back and help with the art room. The art room was not as stuffed as the office. I know Janice and Amira were making the office seem like a nightmare, but the art room seemed to be a higher priority than the office since the art room had more work to be done.

    Ms. Gittens came and left her unfinished painting on her desk. I told her I would go to check on her as soon as I was finished with my entries for the morning. The Form Five art students were there helping out Ms. I kept an alarm on my phone for 9.40 when they would all have to leave for their third-period classes. Miss told me that her uncle was the one to build the fences out in the garden. I ended up making a video that she needed to show to him.

    Mrs. Santana got a copy of the leave form from me during recess time. I had to remind her that she could not use the form because it was not Ministry-approved. It was then that I shared with her my hope that it would be approved by the Ministry. When she opened the file to put the form inside, I saw that the book that I gave her, which was a copy of the St. George's College Song booklet, became detached from the spiral home. I offered her to take it home and fix it and she seemed to agree.

    While sitting back at my desk, she was giving a nice rhyme to Donna. I couldn't make out the words, but we all got a nice laugh from it. At the start of the fifth period, or more so before the fifth period, a tutor meeting was called by Mr. Marlon and Dr. Jogi. It was a fusion meeting between TUTTA Reps first and then the staff meeting.

    When Mr. Charles came in, this meeting dealt with issues on the compound for the tutor segment and then agreement on students for the lower sixth coming into the school in the second segment. This meeting concluded during lunchtime. All of the fifth and sixth period was used for both meetings.

 

    The meeting ended and I ended up falling asleep on the top of my table. I didn't see “Jess” as yet and she had left also, maybe for her class. The sky had a lot of dark clouds on the left side of the school. I had hoped that it would not break down any rain while walking up the street. Thankfully, the first week had a good fit in the remaining pages of this journal, book number three. I learned that it was Donna's birthday today. Maybe it explained the reason why she was dressed in that particular dress and she had asked me earlier how her dress looked. It was a very beautiful floral patterned dress, but I found it to be a bit too short.

    I couldn't wait for school to end any longer. I felt better to go back home and do some music writing. Surprisingly enough, the zeal had come in me that evening to do music writing. As I almost made it to the bus stop, “Choo Choo” called me out. We had a lovely chat sitting on the bus.

    I got home late again for the fourth time after leaving school so early this week. I ended up gaming and then went to do music writing, which concluded at 11:30 from 8 PM. The full song for “Right By My Side” was transcribed. Tomorrow, the chords will have to be determined and inserted. I went to read Love Island.

    Tonight, Emel and Oakley were both eliminated from the game and soon after, Max and Sienna too. Both dumpings were done by public voting. Not many people were on Whisper again. I wonder if the Whisper app will decrease in traffic as it is depreciating this way for 2025. Only repeaters and prostitutes are there. A few comments from ‘sugar parents’ are there. Not many of the nice people are around on Whisper again. Sad to see. This journal entry makes the end of Daily Log Book #3.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:59 am – 2:51 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #77) – Day #354

Date for Entry: (Thursday 05 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 08 September 2024)

[T1, W:01 – WD:04, (Td:2)*].

Dear Diary,

    I got ready in 30 minutes and got to Curepe at 6.50 a.m. this morning. The road was super clear. As soon as I got to the bus route I saw “Mr. Adams” waiting for his bus. Also, as soon as the bus that I was on reached the junction in Barataria, he was in the front seat of a taxi. I had a good laugh at him in my mind. The 6th Avenue was clear as well. I saw Ariel with her dad walking her down to school.

    Not many teachers were there in the staff room too. I got my pie done while chatting with Miss Gittens. Better news of Mr. Greenaway came. They said that he was doing well but his body had to recover before surgery and that there was a better chance of him getting to come home. It was nice of Miss Patel to hang with us too. I got a beautiful bookmark from “Choo Choo.” Mr. Persard came in and he met me. He spoke with Mr. Pierre before I got up to go to class with “Jess.”

    The music room was not ready too so we were allocated a spot in the hall for meeting the Form 4 students. A short introduction was done and then she spoke about the course of study and worked on the three examination papers for CSEC. The breeze was so nice by the wall fans in the hall that it started to make me fall asleep. I had to fight it a lot. Only three of the four students were present today. It reminded me of Miss Kittens' four students for Form 4 Arts this academic year.

    I spoke with Mr. Persard when I entered the staff room again about the forms and gave him a copy that I made for him to keep. He was also shown some of the other forms that I made and he liked the teacher's log too. He liked the concept and idea and I gave him a coloured copy to keep in case that was a form they would like to adopt and use too. Thankfully it had my logo printed on the back of it.

    I saw that the green bag with my cleaning supplies was gone. Not sure if Miss Gittens had taken it to start cleaning the art room. No one was there in the art room when I got there. I went to see “Jess” in the music room. Far from the art room, she was trying to get Mr. Bain to fix a broken table that they had stolen from UTT. I met Janice in the corridor outside the staff room with my green bag of supplies. We went to the art room and I got started. She sprayed some bug spray and left for a very long time.

    I ended up going through boxes of papers by the time to help with organizing the papers into teaching materials, things for Miss to organize and see what to keep, as well as things that would have been handled for children and sorted them out into different groups. Miss came in a little before recess time and met me there. We both worked until lunchtime. A lot of things were mixed up still in the art room.

    The delivery men came and took chairs out of the room and they helped remove some other stuff that did not belong in the art room. Thankfully Shiva helped us out a lot. Towards lunchtime when Miss was not there, Janice and Amira came but they didn't stay for long. Miss Kittens was now leaving early too. I thought Jess went out with Carty again. Miss Dana had a good quote to share today. I'm not sure about what happened with Inshan Ishmael but he was one of the hot topics in the conversations that the teachers were having.

    Nice to see Mr. Charles coming back in the staff room. The area was very noisy and buzzing. I wasn't sure what was going on with the administration office too. I hope that it will be up and running as soon as next week. Even lunchtime finished quickly and it took forever for lunchtime to reach. I felt as if I could have gone to bed when lunch was over. We had a class with two 2L. The class that moved up from 1L.

    “Jess” and the children were commenting on the classroom’s heat. The same was true for the rest of the teachers. I waited on my feet and then sat for the last 30 minutes of class. She wanted me to carry a blue chair from the hall to the music room. Back in the staff room, I learned that it was “Maria's” birthday today. Some more reports of heat affecting students in the classroom were mentioned in the staff room. Another shocking discovery was discussed too.

    With one more day to go, I hope it goes well. I got up to the bridge right by my side and transcribed tonight. Hopefully tomorrow the rest will be done. In Love Island, there was a man's choice after movie night and Jin had chosen me again. Max ended up picking the Casa girl Sienna who was very mean to me in the game. Theo did mention he would have picked me. Hari had chosen a dancer girl named Hazel. I went to bed immediately and hoped that waking up in the morning would have been easy.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:11 am – 3:19 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #77) – Day #353

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 04 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 08 September 2024)

[T1, W:01 – WD:03, (Td:1)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning, Daddy and I were both too tired to get up from bed. He was surprised how quickly I got out of bed, had a bath and was ready in 20 minutes. We got to Curepe and I boarded a Maxi. The driver had some nice music playing.

    Somehow the driver reminded me of Dion, but yesterday I heard that Dion was hired to teach mathematics in another school. I was not sure if it was a private school or a secondary school. I had breakfast and I still remember the song that I heard sitting down in the Maxi, which would have been very nice to transcribe and also turn into a steelpan arrangement. Sadly, I did not know the name of it.

    The walk down to St. George's was short. I saw “Deane” walking in front of me on the other side of the pavement. As I got to the savannah, I was greeted by “Mr. Haynes”, who looked like he had packed very light for that day. The guard had called me back to find out my name and the spelling. Students were now coming in. The compound looked very small in number.

    Today, the Form 3s, 4s and 5s had a brief assembly in the hall. As it was their first day back out of school for the academic year, we were told by Mr. Pierre that all the Form 1s and 2s would be kept in their classrooms for morning assembly. It was also mentioned that we had homeroom for the new specified time according to the mandatory ‘Cultural Transformation’ idea on all schools by the Ministry of Education. We had homeroom for the, well, 30 minutes in the morning before the first period began.

    Timetables were handed out and “Jess” took hers from me. I gave her Ms. Jones's timetable to rest on her desk. Not sure what time Ms. Gittens will be here. She has the final pack today from Valsane to get to St. George's. It was our last day to pack and leave the compound as well. Mr. Prasad was here too. It was nice chatting with him. The two of us spoke about the leaf forms for teachers and he gave me his email to send it off to him.

    Javid said that he was ready to start class. He had a lot of papers to give back to his children on that first part of the day. I got to see the insect vector guy who came into the staffroom too. Surprising that the men's room was locked to the flooding. That meant I had to hold up urine for the entire day. Jess and I had Lower Six placed on our strange timetable but there were no lower six students present in school today.

The times of the periods were changed to suit the 30-minute homeroom after assembly. While writing people are starting to notice my journal book. A lot of people came by looking at it and asking and talking about it in whispers. We heard that fans were missing from the classroom and Miss Poops ended up walking out with a fan in her left hand saying, “This heat boy? I cyah take this heat!”

Classrooms were in session when I was out for a few minutes. Dean's matters with the wrong size of skirt were taking place early in the morning with a parent and the office was locked again. There came a time during the day when Mr. Pierre was asking for numbers of students from form teachers. I will make a student's numbers form for Mr. Pear this evening.

    "Jess" and I went to form 3F for class during the 5th and 6th periods. It had to be split up for theatre arts and music. We didn't have anything planned to do with them for the day. She gave back the test papers and tried to convince some of the students to make music. Once that was over with six children, I shared with Jess that music is very hard for them and it is not favoured heavily at Form 3 into Form Four.

    In the last 20 minutes to lunchtime, Artee had 3M on our left-hand side. She was exhausted from the heat and so was Jess. She went back to the staff room to pack. Both ‘Jess’ and Carthy were leaving early. I packed up and left after asking Mr. Charles to leave early as well. Some long waiting was done in the bank. Luckily someone left early and we got their number.

    I sat next to Anil in the bank from UWI and he shared his discovery of the western modes and some of their relation to the Indian classical tarts. I did mention to him that at some point the modes and tarts began to be less similar to each other. I also got my extension letter from the OJT office in the Anva Plaza. This was before going to the bank. The time range was extended from the 18th of September 2024 to the 26th of May 2025.

    As soon as I got food finished and out of the way I fell asleep on the couch until 10.15 pm. There was a strange dream of “Suite Life of Zack and Cody” although this particular TV episode was not real. This was a made-up episode in my dream. As soon as I had a bath I went and got the email of the teacher's leave form prepped and ready for sending off to Mr. Sanjeev Prasad. I also sent a copy of the teacher's attendance book that I had created and detailed it well in the discussion. This was in case both documents would be considered for adoption. The time was midnight after this exercise.

    I got the introduction to “Right By My Side” transcribed. The rest of the morning was spent reading three chapters from Love Island. I hope that the Ministry will be able to approve the documents. It would feel like a nice accomplishment to me.

    If in future they ever decide to accept and adopt the teacher's attendance register that I had created, it would feel like a blessing and I know for sure that the vice principals in the different schools would have an easier task of doing their checks for late and absences. This was mainly my idea while observing Dr. Blandin last term when we had to do lates and absences and she had my assistance. Having these observations helped me to get some more useful ideas. I hope that when George's is ready and set I will be able to go and continue to assist the teachers with the late and absences forms.

 

LINK(S):

• OJT Extension Letter. **

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:48 am – 2:48 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #77) – Day #352

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 03 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 08 September 2024)

[T1, W:01 – WD:02, (Td:X)*].

Dear Diary,

    I had a late arrival waiting for Daddy to come up home. We got a spicy chicken pie by the bus route in Curepe and I got the first bus on the priority down to Barataria. Daddy also came on the bus with me this morning. He was going to Steve Electronics in Barataria Junction to get a multi-USB port for the computer. Sadly that one was spoiled and I had to get another one. He was asking me how long this one had lasted and I told him that it was since the beginning of the two-year OJT program that he had bought this spoiled one.

    I met Miss Mohammed by the office and three male parents were waiting. I didn't bother to ask her for the OJT log book seeing that the office was still in a mess and not packed up yet. I went to the staff room instead of the long walk behind the hall. Looking through the window first, it looked like a meeting was going on. When I got inside by the first table everyone was there. Mr. Charles was directing the discussion at the time and I took my chair.

    There were issues with the timetable that had to be prepared for school tomorrow. These were the instructions from the district supervisor Mr. Sanjeeve Prasad. He had the last part of the meeting to discuss different points with us. Two other fallouts occurred.

    We also learned that once the principal is on vacation she has no authority except for the person acting in her place. I learned that the principal decided to take three months of vacation which means that in January of 2025, she will be coming back to Georges.

    The list of seniority was reviewed for the role of acting principal. Once Mr. Charles's name was called he accepted the responsibility when the staff expressed their confidence in him. Since Mr Martin after Mr Charles was not present the list review had to stop and Mr Peer was asked to assist as acting vice principal until word from Mr Martin. He would have to send his decision in writing. Mr Prasad did not accept the person's decision while the principal was still on duty.

 

    The meeting ended immediately for an urgent MMT meeting to begin. Ms. Gittens gave me her supplies and she placed them into my green cleaning bag before heading over with the heads to the MMT meeting. She came back to let me know that security had the keys to open the art room.

    Mr. Harry while doing my entry asked if I was writing a love letter in this journal book. I told him in a joke that I was writing my heart and soul out. He gave me a big smile. Donna too tried joking to see in the journal love book. This was book journal book number three. She had been joking with everyone about not saying anything during the meeting with Mr. Prasad. I just hope that cleaning the art room will not take forever.

    Ms. Greenaway had already expressed how shocked she was at the state of the art room and she said that the art room and the home economics room were both the worst classes in the entire school, concerning their status. The guard outside said that the gate for the art room was opening but they had tried all the keys they had and the two doors were not opening. I had to let Ms. know about this situation when she came back to check on me from the MMT meeting.

    When Waverly came to visit “GG”, Shiva laughed and gave me a hard lash on my shoulder as I learned about Waverly going to a Presbyterian school. He must have forgotten how much his lashes hit me. Not sure when the room will be open but I went to work on my Bible reading. There was a lot of flaming and noise in the entire staff room until it cooled down. I did not see many of the MMT members after their recess.

    I left early again that afternoon and went up home. I saw Javid leaving too before turning up 6th Avenue. The evening went by quickly. I tried watching the “Chicano Club” documentary but it was too long. It also lost my attention. Perhaps if they had a series in the holidays I may have appreciated that. I got two Love Island chapters read out and all of “Another Day in Paradise” was fully transcribed that evening.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(9:18 am – 2:59 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #77) – Day #351

Date for Entry: (Monday 02 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 08 September 2024)

[T1, W:01 – WD:01, (Td:X)*].

Dear Diary,

    I knew the holidays would fly by in a rush. Only in the second to last week before school could open, I heard about preparations for St. George's to open in Barataria. Not much information or feedback was given to me. Two online Zoom meetings took place. Only a limited amount of attendees were welcomed.

    The Thursday before school opened, the staff, except for OJT trainees, were called back to duty. A meeting was probably to be scheduled then and on Friday. There was still no feedback. Over the weekend, we saw news, comments and other social media releases about the reopening of St. George's with the Education Minister. The school was not ready and she noted that Saturday and Sunday would be used to have the school's classrooms ready.

    On the new 2M chat, someone said that the rooms looked like prison cells and matched the visual appearance of a prison cell that I remembered. Sunday evening (yesterday), Daddy came and helped me pack up my bags for school and Aunty Vangy wanted to know if to come to help me with my things for tomorrow. I told her that I would have to wait and see what happens.

 

    Last night I could not sleep at all. The alarm sounded at 5:30 in the morning and then I got up to drink half of my 1.5 litres bottle. This was a Mountain Dew bottle. It sent me to the toilet one time. I had my bath also and then went to get dressed. Andrew was going to work today as well.

    As soon as I got a pie and Curepe, waiting for a bus was the next difficult thing. A nice driver drove me to Valsane. Before he took off from Curepe, I realised that all the seats were taken and I may have had to leave the bus. I saw that the front passenger seat was available. I took a seat in it. It felt so shaming for me trying to get into the seat. The driver stopped near the lights and I had to wait. The mistake I made was not crossing to the other side for a better pavement to walk on. The pavement on the left-hand side going down 6th Avenue was too high for me and hurt my ankles.

    There were a lot of cars all over. Ms. Mustafa and Mr. Marlon were there in front of the compound by the guard booth. The office was locked so I could not get to sign in except for signing my daily logbook to record the time that I arrived at the compound. I helped Ms. Santana move boxes and tables. Everyone in the staff room was all over making noise. It had a lot of murmuring and the confusion gave everyone a headache. There was also difficulty with getting persons to organise their tables in groups of four and also to assemble them as they were before moving.

    I was told that I had to give up the big table that was given to me and take a smaller one so that it matched the other table sizes and that it could fit. My big table was moved and they gave me a smaller one. It was moved all over the room and everybody wanted to go back to their original positions. Ms. Gittens introduced me to a nice Muslim girl who will be working with Mr. Charles. I was told that she liked to do art but she wasn't an art student.

    At some time before lunch, Ms. Carty asked me to move and exchange places with Jasmine. I figured it was for friends to be close together. At least the corner would be empty a lot of the time. There was a short TTUTA briefing between Mr Marlon and Dr Jogi to the teachers. It was interesting to see the education minister there. She did not come in to speak to the teachers but she took a peek in and walked away to some other part of the compound. Probably she spoke in the hall for the new Form 1 students.

    It was hurting for me after lunch to see Mrs. Sawh go. Today was her last day working at George's. “Choo Choo” had to help me out a little bit. I got a nice brownie that Mrs. Sawh shared with everyone. I was also given a George's Teacher's Planner book from Mrs. Sawh when she was cleaning out her cupboard. Dr. Blandin liked it so much that she wanted to take it from me. I took the book and hid it away in my book bag immediately.

    During the middle of the 7th period in the afternoon, I went for a short walk around the school feeling sorry for the Form 1s. The Form 2's could have taken it as detention for all the trouble that they had created for the first year of their school. Everywhere I go, I smell feces and the ground looks very muddy and dirty. Some of the classrooms had tiles that were broken and displaced. The library too was closed and I had a good chat with the electrician for the school. He too was trying to get accustomed to the school's arrangement of classrooms.

    Miss Chote and I walked to the music room not sure what she was looking for. After returning to the staff room, I decided to leave early. The past 5 days were a lot of difficult for me to fall asleep in the night. I hope that tonight things will be easier. Daddy and I had a while to wait in the Chinese restaurant and then Green Street was filled up with cars. I had a short sleep on myself in the back seat during the traffic. Even trying to walk up the stairs was not so easy for me.

    Daddy was surprised at my speed getting to Curepe from Barataria. I had to fight to stay awake on the couch. I wanted to see what they would say about St. George's on CNC3 News. It felt like a waste of time but I made it and got in bed by at least 7.30 pm. I did not wake up until the phone alarm at 5.30 the next morning. I did not get up until 6.45 am. Not many people were online that night for conversation either.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:10 am – 3:52 pm)