St. George’s College (WEEK 11) – Day #46

 Date for Entry: (Wednesday 30th November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    I came to the campus early. I did not play the national anthem but I was still there. Miss Roberts met me at my desk to collect some of her assignments that were submitted there yesterday. A lot of them were incomplete. I had been to the class a bit late because their homeroom time usually goes late into the first period.

    I did not have it in mind to do the exam today but because the students were asking about it and there were enough to do it, I continued. I decided to sit in the back of the class for this exam to look at the students that liked to talk during the exam like last Friday. This one was smoother than the English exam and did not take much time for the students to complete.

    A nice tactic I tried was to ask the students to check over five times and to “draw me something nice” in the empty parts of the exam paper. This helped the students in waiting for fewer students to complete the exam. We only had two minutes before the end of the second period and I took up the papers first. I then took up their Grade 1 booklets.

    I took the full hour and ten minutes of periods three and four to correct all the exam sheets and insert the total points into my ‘temporary mark sheet’. Only at lunchtime, I corrected the students’ Grade 1 books. Many of them did not do their homework and I had a lot of writing to do on square sheets of paper. Some time into the seventh period, I returned the books to their class.

    Miss Roberts had called me and asked to supervise seven students doing an exam they missed. We started late into the seventh period. I waited until the 2:30 bell for school to dismiss. It was only after school I correct the seven exam papers while waiting for the bus shuttle to come. There was enough time to do them and I left them back at school.

    Today the timesheet was due. I had handed it in somewhere after recess to Isekel. I just hope that they make copies of them. We still had the staff meeting at periods four and five that went twenty minutes into lunchtime. I had my small copybook taking notes from the safety officer and his notes about the safety drill that should be coming any time before school closes.

Link(s):

• Exam Drawings (Term 1) – Form 1 Mitchell.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:02 am – 3:25 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 11) – Day #45

 Date for Entry: (Tuesday 29th November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Yesterday was no school because of the flooding and the closure of schools. I was able to complete the transcription of the rap song “Nah Change Up” for Miss Harris. It was a very challenging piece to do because of the rap and also because of the last-minute request. I still did not trust it to the moment when she asked me and the less rush in the corridor today. She wanted me to write in the letter as if it was too much to ask Miss Roberts.

    This morning’s transportation was another story because there were only two maxis there and no taxis. Both of the maxis were stopping at the roundabout and going down onto the highway. I decided to take the maxi and walk in because it seemed to be the only way to get to school. I had a long way to go and the sun was very hot for the morning. All day the sun was hotter than usual.  

    The attendance for the Form 1 Leacock was too little for the exam today. I did not want to do it with a short number. Instead, I had the students open their Grade 1 book and I questioned them on topics they had homework on. A lot of the questions were others from outside of the book. I also had a lot of students participating in writing answers on the board. Some of them love to draw the staff.

    Ten out of seventeen students submitted books and they were returned during lunchtime. Their class was empty somehow when I got there. The same review was done with Form 1 Farrell but I had forgotten to take up their workbooks. I did not even feel ill towards the end of lunch I only went to 1 Farrell during the last ten minutes of the seventh period.

    There were no exams needed for Miss Roberts’ Form 3 class because of the small number of participants. They were told that it would be held tomorrow at 12:20 during lunchtime. I appreciated the assembly this morning when I got to ask Miss Chote to play the national anthem on the tenor pan. I made one short mistake in the playing after playing it in Hillview. I had thirty copies of my attendance receipt forms in legal sheets. I had cut the sheets in halves. Thirty of them were for me and the other thirty I had put in the born cabinet for other teachers to use.

    On my way home, the highway had too much traffic as if some major accident took place. The bus driver took the main road up and tried to come out by WASA in Mount Hope but had to turn back. He ended up taking the back roads and allowed some of us to exit opposite Yang’s Wuk. I had to cross the bus route and the main road. I walked up to the back road in line with Vashti and walked down to McLeod Street. It was only at 4:45 that daddy met me at the junction.

Link(s):

• “Nah Change Up” – Score. **
• “Nah Change Up” – YouTube Recording.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:20 am – 2:55 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 10) – Day #44

Date for Entry: (Friday 25th November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today was a long day for me. I was glad to get to school early and had breakfast at a very slow pace before assembly. I had my final review class with Form 1 Mitchell and for the same class I was supervising them for the English A exam (periods 3-4) and English B exam (periods 5-6). Just before class, there was mood six. From lunchtime until the end of school, I was in the art room with Miss Gittens and Miss Briggs working on my pillow case design.

Link(s):

• Staff Letter about Exam.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:07 am – 2:43 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 10) – Day #42

 Date for Entry: (Wednesday 23rd November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    I had a panic when Miss Roberts told me in her call coming to school that the previous principal Mr Sammy told her that the music had errors. I had already made printouts f all the scores into a booklet for different sections of the school. I did not want to have to make over music because of the work done already and the cost put out to make them.

    We met in the corridor and she showed me what was sent to her and she did not remember to tell me until that morning. I felt better than the entire singing from Mr Sammy was exactly what I had in the updated version of the booklets. I had shown Miss Roberts the books and she liked them. She said that it would be something the steelpan students should have for the rehearsals.

    At the end of the conversation of many things, I ended up leaving the bag of booklets there on my desk. I was disappointed because I was finally hoping to go and drop the booklets into the library so that the school could finally for once own music notation to their school song.

    The school was closed early because of the heavy rain at lunchtime but the sun came out in full right after. I saw Miss Philips sitting with Miss Roberts in the lobby area and I handed her the teacher’s log with amendments. She seemed happy about it.

Link(s):

• Teachers’ Individual Class Log (V2).
• St. George’s College (SONG) – Journal Entry.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:31 am – 12:10 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 10) – Day #41

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 22nd November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today Miss Roberts did not come to school because she had to attend the SanFest competition with the students and participating students. There was no assembly in the hall because of the flooding down by the cafeteria side of the campus. I waited a while and went over to get the security to open the music room. Walking back to the office the rain came down on me and I had to run. It was amazing how I got there to school at the same time as yesterday. The road was very clear as if it was before six in the morning.

    The Form Five Music students were already in the music room by the time I got there with my books. I had a photocopy of the piece “Air” and a compilation book with “Invention Number Two.” Both students were using the tenor pan. The student doing “Air” did not have much work to do except for working on her timing and being able to get accustomed to the tempo (sixty crotchet beats per minute).

    The next piece was only six spots more in tempo. This second student needed a bit more assistance when I saw that some pitches were not correct. She had only one more bar to complete section B of the piece. The only homework I gave them was downloading a metronome app on their phones and setting it to the correct meter and tempo. That was the end of the class. I found that it went by too quickly.

    I later spent more time in Miss Gittens’ art room working on colouring the pillow casing design. Only at the end of lunch, I had the students lock up the music room and I went over to get my tray with books for class with Form 1L.

    This particular class was noisy but it was easier when I had everyone writing out the review answers on the whiteboard. All seven topics were reviewed and there was one student to snapshot the summary notes for their class group. I took the shuttle back to Curepe from George’s that evening.

Link(s):

• Teachers’ Individual Class Log (V2).

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:15 am – 2:48 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 10) – Day #40

 Date for Entry: (Monday 21st November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    The morning sky was dark as night. I did not get to the UTT site until 7:15 while sheltering on the main road and having my pants lightly went from cars dashing water on me and the others. I did not make a run for it with the umbrella as many did. I knew the strength of the rain was not good to personally make it.

    I met Miss Phillips again this morning. I showed her the teacher’s log that I made. Her only issue was that she preferred the session boxes to be left to right instead of a vertical setting. She still took it. I made the change later that night to see what she might say the next day.

    I had my only class for the first two periods of the day. Unfortunately, the form teacher took up my entire first period. They were talking about food, so I went back to the office, had breakfast, and returned to the class door with my tray of books in my hand. I opened the door for the teacher to know I was there.

    I went in and took out my marker to write out everything. Then I went to get the grand staff chart for the form ones. I got a student to take a picture for their class group. The same was done for the grand staff chart after the discussion. I went back to the office and wrote out some questions I wanted to do as a review with the class for tomorrow. It would be their last before the exam next week Monday and Tuesday.

    As soon as lunchtime came, I was on my way up to the visual arts room. Miss Gittens and I spoke for some time as I applied the white fabric paint that she gave me. I was able to complete that aspect of the ‘primer’ work. I was also allowed to put some white acrylic paint onto the ‘primer’ layer. I have the second half of the pillow casing to cover before adding the colour.

    I supervised Miss Roberts’ Form 2L class exam during the last two periods. The exam was supposed to last during the first period and about fifteen minutes before the last one. I only gave them all of the seventh period and at the start of the eighth period, I collected the papers.

    I had to give them their next assignment that was due on Monday. I wrote out the requirements but sadly their whiteboard destroyed my markers in the process. I told them in short what they had to do and, who and where to submit the assignment. They had fifteen minutes before school would close. I took the papers to the office and began correcting them for Miss Roberts. I had six more to do when I got home. I just have to do her attendance for the class in her subject register.

    I took the last bus shuttle with Isekel today to go back down to George’s. We had a good laugh about almost falling asleep on the way to school when the ride was about to end. Somehow the ride down to George’s get the three of us tired on the bus. I’m just glad that the rain did not wet us down again like in the morning. Nice cool weather to walk in.

Link(s):

• Teacher’s Individual Class Log (V2).

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:15 am – 3:04 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 9) – Day #39

 Date for Entry: (Friday 18^th November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 19th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today I woke at 4:30 again and I got ready. I could make it to the UTT site at 7:07. I left my pencil case at home and did not feel comfy for the whole day. It was early and I was in the outer part of the office alone I saw Miss Gittens coming into the office to sign her attendance after I did. I could smell the religious Hindi incense that Doctor would light when she is in her office. I only saw her some minutes going to assembly when Miss Roberts called me on her way down to the car.

    Miss Roberts asked me if I was interested in going to the SanFest competitions with the students on Tuesday. I told her later that day that I would prefer to stay back in school because of my class in the evening and that “I could also go and see about some of her classes which she is out on that adventure.”

    The assembly went by sometime this morning. Dr Sookdeo told me that I was welcome to join them in the hall. I did just that because I enjoyed being out there listening to the things that the students had to say. The national anthem was played by a girl from one of my Form One classes on a tenor pan. They ended up keeping the instrument in the hall. It was better for carrying it back and forth.

    The assembly ended up finishing an entire ten minutes into the first period. I was late but I knew that the lesson to teach would have been very short. I had Form One Leacock and the class was completed with twenty minutes to complete the second period. I reviewed the pitches on the treble staff and then introduced the Bass clef. The discussion was on the Grand staff and Middle C. The grand staff chart was used. The same was done in the evening class. Both classes were nightmares.

    A while before lunchtime I was in the library typing out a teacher’s class log. I did not have my flash drives, so I had to do something new from scratch. Miss Phillips gave me one that Miss Patel made and I transformed it into a longer one that caters for twenty classes in a term. I hope that Miss Phillips appreciates this and makes it easier for her to do her class logs. I did not finish this form until I got home. Suddenly I began to feel too sleepy. I went back to my desk in the administrative office and fell asleep for the rest of periods four and five.

    I awoke nine minutes into lunchtime. I got up and went to the visual arts room with the Form One book that I made to go visit Miss Gittens. We had a while to wait because a cleaner came to see about the room. Miss Gittens gave me a pillowcase to draw designs on; sometime before I left, she helped me put a whole liquid within the shapes I drew. She said that the liquid helps to keep the wet fabric paint. There was already some plastic placed on the inside of the pillow casing.

    I had forgotten to take it home with me to work on it. I even stood out in the wet rain to get a taxi. I did not use the bus shuttle because daddy and I had to go to the bank, Charan’s, the barber, and Payless before all of them closed for the evening. The bank and Charan’s were a compromise. We got the shoes and went home.

Link(s):

• St. George’s College Song Booklets (Pictures).
• Teacher’s Individual Class Log (V2).

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:07 am – 2:41 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 9) – Day #38

Date for Entry: (Thursday 17 November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 19th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today I left my orange pocket diary at home. I had to wait until I got it to safeguard my time arriving at UTT and the time that I left. There was a crazy staff meeting that went on. I do not think it was productive. It was abruptly concluded and teachers were still left on the spot.

    I sometimes find that teachers should agree on a day of the week and pick a topic for that meeting to try and find a strategy or some kind of workable solution to the issues around. A fourth and fifth period is not enough time for some of those teachers to speak. It might be way too long for some of the teachers who may have given up. There was an argument in response to something by the time that Dr Sookdeo left and many others. We spoke about the submission of reports online versus printed reports, the new acting Vice Principal, the VAPA concert and other things.

    During lunchtime in the visual arts room, Miss Gittens had completed the Bristol board piano project. She had one and I had my one for next term with the Form One students. We had both worked on her music theory homework by the time and spoke about the meeting during the fourth and fifth periods. I had to ask her about submitting the marks and entering marks on the temporary marks sheet I had made.

    During lunchtime, I could not go out to meet dad in Curepe again because of the heavy rain. Even the library was beginning to fill up with water because of the leaks in the roof. I called daddy around twelve and he told me that I should just write him a letter to collect the letter from the office in Tunapuna. We also celebrated the secretary’s birthday and some of them were a bit too cold for ice cream though I had two cups and enjoyed them.

    Before the day was over, Miss Roberts had to go back to George’s to get some more steelpan instruments. She asked me to correct her Form 2M worksheets and I finished the last set at my table in the gallery at night. I had fun doing them but it was too depressing because the students could not complete them and did not know the work. She told me that those were the form two students that did not have music with Miss Paul for all of their time in Form One. I used the bus shuttle again in the evening to go down to George’s with Kiel and Isekel.

 

Link(s):

• Bristol Board Piano.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:46 am – 3:28 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 9) – Day #37

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 16th November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 19th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    I fell asleep on the couch again this week. The phone woke me at 4:30 in the morning before sunrise. I took the time to go on the computer and fix up St. George’s college song to be printed. I wanted the booklet to be printed, bound, submitted and over with. I completed all the steelpan parts and then sent them off to Isa by email along with a cover page that took me six minutes to complete. I got my logo into it and tried to make it as good as I could.

    Going down in the Maxi I felt that I would have reached late. The road was even piled up with traffic at the road merger. When it was time to sign in at the guard booth, I was shown 7:51 was my time of getting onto the site. I did not have much to do today since it was Day six. I did not see Miss Roberts today.

    When it was getting to period four, I went to the library with some of the OJTs for the ‘staff’ meeting. A lot of quarrelling went on. We had a lot of conflicts about submitting marks online or on printed paper. We insufficiently spoke about the way that the term was supposed to run and the meeting was not formally concluded. Everyone left confused, and I went back to the administration office to cut some cards. I got them cut as seven by five inches and had the questions I wanted on the back so that the questions can easily be done tomorrow.

    I spent my entire lunchtime in the visual arts room with Miss Gittens. She had finally finished the Bristol board piano. One of the yellow Bristol boards was cut badly. I was lucky that I brought another sheet of yellow to school last week. I took the measurements from the good-cut piece and cut out the excess. There was some glue from a large bottle and got it stuck.

    Miss Gittens and I had a nice laugh when I showed her the dot of glue and made the comment “stippling”. The rest of the evening was nice after having an icy cold chocolate sucker bag. We went through some of her homework by the rest of lunchtime went on. I had a while to sit in the office and they decorated it. There was a little while for the bus shuttles to come.

 

Link(s):

• Flashcards. **
• Bristol Board Piano.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:51 am – 3:44 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 8) – Day #34

Date for Entry: (Friday 11th November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 16th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Miss Robert was not in a happy mood today. She ended up having to go home ill early. She gave me her copies that were misplaced in the administration office and asked me to give them to her Form Two Farrell class. While she waited in the admin office but at the counter in frustration, I handed her the printout of the test and as soon as she left I had it sent to print.

    It was only until the time of the class that they were not in class. All the students were gone and they were not in the music room. I learned that there was a safety and health for Form one to three. I kept the copies in my desk drawer for her until Monday.

    However, earlier I was asked by Miss Phillips to supervise her Social Studies class. She handed me some copies of two textbook pages. I learned that she was a Social Studies teacher at the time. Their reading topic was the “Governing of Tobago.”

    The Form Twos had questions one to five to do in class and question seven as homework. I wrote out the information on the whiteboard and allowed the students to begin working. It took a very long time for that class to be over. One particular student chose to misbehave. In two other episodes he had troubled other students and I notified the Form Teacher in the office after lunchtime.

    As lunchtime began, I had my materials on the desk and the laptop turned on when Dr Sookdeo said that she finally had some time to see all the works that I had done. She pulled one of the waiting area’s chairs and had a seat and I spoke to her about the teacher’s individual subject register. All of the previous versions were shown to her before the current one.

    It was strange the laptop did not want to turn on but it did eventually. I showed her the bus shuttle attendance sheets and event registration forms. Soon Miss Phillip came walking into the office and I gave her the attendance form that I had the students sign for her. I shared with them the newer version of the attendance form sometime after explaining and then the temporary mark sheet.

    I did not have classes in the evening. I thought that it would have had a double in the seventh and eighth periods. I was taking off the scotch tape from the receipts for the parang projects and putting them into their class files. Lunchtime did not bring many students to submit so I had to extend the deadline to Monday instead. From Tuesday the penalties will commence until Friday.

    I got the bus shuttle with two other OJT guys and we walked up the road from George’s. All three of us fell asleep on the ride down to school. I had no idea how I was gonna start marking the papers but I was very excited to do it.

Link(s):

• Governing of Tobago Reading Passage. **
• Form 1 Parang Assignments. ** [For Request by Email.]

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:48 am – 3:31 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 8) – Day #33

 Date for Entry: (Thursday 10th November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 16th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today was another rushed day because of the rain. I got to class I was hurrying to get to the security guard and then to the office to up my bags. I was already nine minutes into my first period with Form 1 Mitchel. I did the Time Signatures lesson and it was challenging for some of them. To avoid stressing out the students I did not do the in-class activity. Perhaps in the next lesson, I can do another review and try it before the topic of rest.

    Later that afternoon as soon as it was my turn to go and see Miss Roberts the bell went. She rejected seeing me and it was only five sentences she could not review. I got so angry and I left the music room one time. I took the late bus again to leave school and go down to George’s and travel up to Curepe.

 

Link(s):

• Form 1 (Term 1) – Simple Answer Exam. ** [Request by Email.]

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:29 am – 3:01 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 8) – Day #32

 Date for Entry: (Wednesday 9th November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 16th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    I had Form One Mitchell with their dots lesson. Some of them were confused. I had a review and saw that some students may not have learned about how certain fractions worked. I took the opportunity to do some fractions on the board as they do in some music books.

    During lunchtime, I was able to get the laptop on and I found Miss Roberts to take a look at the exam from the previous day. She had a steelband rehearsal to begin soon. She did not want me to test semiquavers and said that she does that in Form Two.

    I still could not find a way to explain to her that the students need to know semiquavers if they are to use that useless ABRSM Grade 1 in certain topics. It felt like I should just go and make up a full book to teach all of the things and compose questions so I wouldn’t have to worry about not having the right workbook.

    When I got home, I just made the changes to satisfy her. The purposes and functions section was transformed into a true and false exercise. I did not print it out because sometimes getting prints from the school email could be an issue. I also saw that you had to send the email an entire twenty-four hours in advance for it to be done.

    I left Miss Roberts for her band rehearsal and went to find the Visual Arts room. Miss Gittens said that it was supposed to be somewhere near the music room. I realised the building for the music room was Block D and her building was Block E. I did not even have lunch so I took out my pie and ate while I waited for Miss Gittens to take out her books. She had asked me to help her with the music theory that she had to learn for a church keyboard class.

    I showed her the treble clef and bass clef on the staff but then Miss Roberts came walking in. I was told that they were going to have a meeting in there and soon the Principal and Miss Jones joined us. There was a big concert fundraiser for the school they wanted to have on the 17^th of December here at UTT. Some very interesting things apart from the event occurred.

    The meeting took the entire lunchtime to finish and Miss Gittens and I did not even get to go through the work we wanted to get done. We spent the seventh and eighth periods going through exercises on labelling pitches written on the treble clef and bass clef staves. We were even interrupted when two of her form class students came and told us that the Maths teacher had packed up and left the class because of their continuous pestering and noise. It reminded me of myself when I wanted to leave the same class but I fought that and I continued to make sure the students had the lesson.

Link(s):

• Form 1 (Term 1) – Simple Answer Exam. ** [Request by Email.]

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:49 am – 2:50 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 8) – Day #31

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 8th November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 16th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today heavy rain poured down and I had to wait and wait in the living room. I was glad that I did not reach too late. On this day I came to school with my Grand Staff chart that I had made special for my Form Ones. I knew that the lesson would not be done until next week or the following week. I just wanted my art and charts table back home to get packed back. Miss Panchu and Santana really loved it. I got to share it with Miss Gittens after in the evening after school.

    I was told by Dr Sookdeo that they had fixed the air-conditioning in the music rooms for us. I went over and it was a bit hot but I hoped the coolness would build up. The signs were also put and stuck to the walls and doors but Miss Roberts said that she preferred them to be bigger. I still did not get to chat with Dr Sookdeo about the several pieces of work that I did.

    During the last few minutes of the day, I took close to eight minutes or less and came up with another exam. I found that the multiple choice and comprehension I made some days ago were too harsh and difficult for the students. Miss Roberts refused to check it over in the evening. I know there is evening schooling for her but I left that there and hoped to see what she might say tomorrow. I was shown by Miss

Link(s):

• Grand Staff Chart.
• Form 1 (Term 1) – Simple Answer Exam. ** [By Email Request.]

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:55 am – 3:43 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 8) – Day #30

 Date for Entry: (Monday 7th November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 16th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today I got my first projects submitted from the Form Ones. I waited for all recess and Lunchtime just in case there were other early submissions. Miss Roberts had me help her fix the bass pans and the others in front.

    By the way, things looked I knew could not have any of my classes there. I personally did not mind. I preferred to have class in the students’ form class. The only thing I had to think of was creative ways to go about doing music things that did not bother the other classrooms around.

    Another special episode came about with a Tic-Toc dancing show and a boxing match. This meant that more students filled up the ‘lobby’ area in the administration office. I made the signs for the music room and had them printed for Miss Roberts when I got home. My time spent at Vashti's store was nice. I had to get some stationary for my desk and more things for the Gran Staff Chart.

Link(s):

• Grand Staff Chart.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:22 am – 3:00 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 7) – Day #29

Date for Entry: (Friday 4th November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 5th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    I had an early travel and came down to the UTT campus with two students. A lady crossed the road with us. I find that road to be scarier than in Georges. I don’t even mind the long walk from the school to the bus route.

    More of the blood emergency meetings came to an end. The waiting area was cramped and so I went to the classroom next door to continue. I eventually had to pack up and leave the area because it was no longer free. Two ladies were already there to take it.

    I put away the laptop because it did not have plugs for me. I was still glad that the in-class activities for my four lesson plans were completed and just to type up. For a campus so wide it always feels like there is never a place for Daryl. There is nowhere to go and just like Miss Ramsaran and me, we never have a quiet place to do our individual work.

    I had a double period with Form 1 Leacock and they were noisier. I went to the side of their class but no students. They were not in the music room when I had gone to check. They were sent to a new classroom and they told me that their air-conditioning was not working. I had the dots lesson done for the first time. Thankfully it was a success. However, the lesson finished within twenty-five minutes. Wouldn’t forget helping out Miss Hope today too.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:33 am – 2:36 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 7) – Day #28

 Date for Entry: (Thursday 3rd November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 5th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    This morning as I sat down in the maxi, I saw Miss Panchu enter. She greeted me walking in the doorway. We had a good chat walking into the UTT compound. I will always remember the good joke she told me about playing music.

    We had a very quick class because the home period was taken a long way into the first period. Some of the students were invited to the board to answer the note values exercise. Seems like they really enjoyed it. My time was up and then the other OJT girl was waiting for her literature lesson with the same class.

    I came back to the office and saw more parents sitting in the waiting area with their children. The children and deans were very busy all morning. I could not work there so I joined Miss Ramsaran in the other empty classroom to do our work away from the noisy school.

    Towards the end of the tiring day, I was able to do some more work on lessons for term three. I was able to plan the lessons for Dots, Ties, Quavers and Semiquavers. I ended up leaving the in-class activities for each of the four lessons for tomorrow.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:21 am – 2:40 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 7) – Day #27

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 2nd November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 5th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today I was early and the first OJT to arrive again. It was nice to see that Dr Sookdeo and Miss Mustafa were there too. The office felt so lonely and empty.

    Today was Day 2 and I was ready for the two double periods of the day. I had Form 1 Leacock for the first two periods and then Form 1 Farrell for the last two periods. They were both finishing up my third lesson which was on note values (Semibreve to Quavers) and stems.

    A horrible scene occurred with the red blood emergency. I could not watch and wait outside to wait for my next class. A big commotion was about to begin again. Still have more difficulty with volume in the class. I had forgotten to remind the earlier class about the handbook and first credit assignment that I was sending them.

    The Farrell class was cut short because the students taking the bus shuttle back to St. George’s had to leave to go to the hall. It was nice to explain the in-class exercise to Smiles and the others.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:37 am – 2:35 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 7) – Day #26

 Date for Entry: (Tuesday 1st November 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 5th November 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today I got to school and had only a few minutes before the first period. There was a very long wait for me and some of the other teachers because the administration office was locked. We did not know that we had to ask the police officer at the gate to open it for us. The regular conversations occurred, safety and being in routine to teach. Many of them watched me in amazement when I answered the question that I was "literally waiting for 8:20 to go and teach my new lesson to the form ones."

    Miss Roberts came into the administration office to sign and she then asked me if I was going to class while I packed up my things to go. I went over and waited. I waited some more and then she told me from the opposite corridor that they had home periods for periods one and two.

    I went back to the office and sat in the classroom next door for the majority of the day working on the steelpan version of St. George’s College. I changed the strumming in the introduction. All the pans for verses one and two carried the same rhythmic pattern.

    At first, I thought that it was not a good gamble. I told myself that even though it worked in Tunapuna Secondary School’s Song this one might have had a different outcome. There was a lot of playing around with the introduction until I finally got something that worked. My only insecurity was the effectiveness of the bassline. Towards the end of this exercise, the score became version four.

    By the middle of lunch, I was able to complete typing out the end-of-term exam for the form ones. I did not mind that the room was hot. However, a lot of sleep was being fought. Did not know why that was happening. Last night I stood up after getting the zeal and two more questions to make up the comprehension section. I had lunch afterwards. The exam paper was reviewed by Miss Roberts and it was ready for class. I just have to figure out how to do copies at school.

Link(s):

• St. George’s College Song – Journal Entry Link.
• Form 1 (Term 1) – Multiple Choice & Comprehension. [By Email only.]

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:13 am – 3:32 pm)