St. George’s College (Week #27) – Day #122

Date for Entry: (Friday 28 April 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 06 April 2023)

[T3, W:02 – D:10*].

**Picture of lessons checklist

Dear Diary,

    I got to Valsayn with two students in the maxi this morning. Still a lot of traffic filled the road but I got there in time. Miss Roberts was earl somehow this morning in the office. I intended to work on charts but realised that I had left my markers back home.

    Instead of that, I went to the staffroom to work on my lesson plans. I also did not have the flash drive to do work. I decided to create a checklist for the different lessons and what I needed. It took me two minutes to draw up the table and insert the names of the topics. I spoke with Mr Shiva shortly after Mr Bains shared the ‘racoon story’. Sadly, our chat was cut when Miss Patel told us there was a bomb scare.

    I turned off the laptop, packed up quickly and waited out at the back of the compound with Dr Blandin. Everyone kept outside in the hot sun. 1L and 1F were the first full class to make it. I stayed with 1F the most to await their Form Teacher. Miss Daniels met us in the field far outside the school to the opposite side. I gave her their roll book, and she went through the list.

    The busses were called back for the students to go back to George’s and the rest of the students gradually emptied the fields with their parents coming to pick them up and a lot of them travels back to their homes. The issue for most of the students was that they would have had to leave their book bags We were called by the principal but not much was said. I escaped the teachers’ gathering and went back to the children instead.

    Long waiting happened. The field was emptied and only less than thirty students remained. The majority of the students were Form 6 students. Three hours later in the hot sun, the principal called everyone out to the front by the community centre. We had some more waiting. I got an assumption form to do while waiting. The other OJTs called the PMO but she was not answering. They went off and I stayed behind.

    Some long minutes after, two police officers arrived and another. We had some more waiting. Miss Trail had her speech and some of the teachers had to accompany the students in groups of ten to go to get their belongings. Not many of them were around. Other teachers were driving out and going home. I was the only one to go into the office and got back my stuff.

    I began to feel as I this was a national drill for some anniversary or something. I just took the stuff I needed in case there was an actual bomb and left. It was also my first sip of water after getting back into the office to my bags. I got a trip to Curepe from Mr Bains but Miss Gittens had forgotten my yardstick back in the art room. I had to hold back on the chart-making for the weekend.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:40 am – 1:44 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #27) – Day #121

Date for Entry: (Thursday 27 April 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 29 April 2023)

[T3, W:02 – D:09*].

Dear Diary,

    No Georgians were in the maxi today. Light rain fell and no bear around either. I had breakfast late and Miss Chote came in saying, “Emm, Mr Ali You’re having a nice breakfast.” Didn’t know how that was if nice or simply a message. No trust there. From Teachers usually need time to go through certain things with their form children before leaving for the first class to begin.

    I did class with 1M on the same ties and slurs that Miss Roberts did with 1L yesterday. I did not like giving them that particular note to copy but if I didn’t episode eight would have come sooner than expected from her. As I got back from class, Miss Chote again told me that Miss Roberts was not there that morning. I told her it was the seventh and eighth and she reminded me of supervision. So tempted to ‘ask’ if she was the one angry at me on Monday.

    For the rest of the day until the end of lunchtime, I went to help Miss Gittens draw lines on her Bristol board envelope to make labels for SBA submissions. It was a lot of work but she labelled the first envelope and I did the other three long ones. Miss Roberts had a guest do some kind of CAPE work for music and marks to discuss. It was a friend of Miss Gittens.

    Miss Robert ran away with her bestie somewhere later in the evening and had me left back with 2L. I took the time to review the exam paper and quizzed them on extra things related to the topic of the questions. We had a lot of fun. I knew Miss Roberts would have come back when school would have been over. Like yesterday, they were given an invitation to my YouTube channel to hear George’s anthem that I did for Steelpan.

    By the time that I got back to the art room that same evening the four portrait envelopes that I drew lines on were already labelled. I had a nice peanut suck-ah-bag while I waited. Miss Laurence did not come again for me to share my Mark Book invention.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:49 am – 5:16 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #27) – Day #120

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 26 April 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 29 April 2023)

[T3, W:02 – D:08*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning I came to school with Tyrel. The maxi driver was ‘Musician’. The songs that morning weren’t as nice as the other times. I had to prepare for 1L. I had them in lines of boys and girls and took them to the music room. Miss Roberts was there in a strange outfit. She wanted me to correct the homework and then I had no choice but to have the children over to her.

    She did Slurs and Ties. I was horrified at the large paragraph that she made the children copy. The children looked bored and tired. I felt the same way as I looked around the class. She went right into the accidentals lesson when we had five minutes. It was already too much and I had had to let her know when she asked.

    The school closed earlier that evening at 1:30 pm for the TTUTA meeting in the library. The rain continued as it did for the entire day. The sun was completely gone and it was dark like seven in the night. It was after three we left the compound in Miss St. Louis. We had a stop at KFC in Valsayn. That same night I felt so very tired. I forced myself to write out the chart on accidentals. I fell asleep on the couch for two straight hours straight before being able to get up and walk to the bed.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:40 am – 3:49 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #27) – Day #119

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 25 April 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 29 April 2023)

[T3, W:02 – D:07*].

** Topics from 2M

Dear Diary,

    There were no Georgians today. Heavy rain was pouring down. I didn’t want to go to school this morning. The road outside was already pooled up and passing cars splashed water around. I was late but I still got to 1M with my bags. I corrected the homework and taught the lesson within the time. Miss Roberts called me and said that she was not coming and overslept. I had already known that she wouldn’t show up.

    After class with 1M, Miss Roberts’ 2M class came down to the music room. Obviously, she had no plan and she liked to preach about it. I sat down with the students and asked them to tell me about all the topics that she gave them. I had plans to teach dotted notes and dotted rest but seeing that they did not do rests, I chose rests instead. They were given a picture of the chart with dotted notes and dotted rests.

    After recess, was the 3F class that she did not come to teach. I waited a while for them outside in the cold corridor outside of the ‘music room’ and saw them coming. I did not feel to teach them anything new that day. I did have a very adventurous idea to teach them part of my steelpan arrangement for the college song. I got the remainder of the book that I had from my desk in the office.

    The students were able to learn the first two systems by the end of the time I called an end to the class. We had about six minutes before the lunch bell went. I also invited the students to my YouTube channel to gain access to the recording of the arrangement that I did. They were very amazed at it.

    During lunchtime, I took some napkins from my desk down in the admin office and cleaned up one in the ‘music room’ to use. She had never found or made a place for me to sit down and work in there. It was shiny and clean, and I got a place to rest my charts on it. A lot of the 1F students were around. I sat down and worked on two in-class activities for my beaming lesson plan and another for my accidental lesson plan.

    I had given Miss Mary a good ‘migrating’. We had a good laugh over it. I got a ride from Miss Louis and have to prepare to share the Mark Book tomorrow if possible.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:25 am – 3:50 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #27) – Day #118

 Date for Entry: (Monday 24 April 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 29 April 2023)

[T3, W:02 – D:06*].

Dear Diary,

    Two Georgians came to Valsayn in the maxi with me. No sign of Miss Roberts that day. I had breakfast and then went to use the washroom after three and a half hours. The cleaner was mopping the floor and it was enough time for it to dry. I completed my days of class attendance for all of last week in the office in my subject register.

    After recess, I went to the staffroom to get more work done on my lesson plans for this term. I got a call from Miss Roberts and she was behaving like the slave master again. When I got to the music room, she took us outside and attacked me verbally. I did not like this double whammy that was a continuation of last week’s Thursday.

    She was not worth it with my energy and time although I did with to give her back something. She mentioned “It lookin’ really bad” Miss Roberts could never mention what the “it” was or what was so bad about the “it”. She’s never there in school and comes in after half nine in the morning or even later after lunch for an evening class if she’s coming.

    Another part of it was about the update for the other Form 1s that did not tell her about. We went back into the ‘music room office’ and she chose Ties and Slurs. Wondered if she had planned that or if she just took it from the scheme of work for the year that I did up. It was a waste of time and the Form 5 were waiting on her.

    I was so very upset to hear that Miss Chote was the ‘angry’ one. She did not deserve to be so. Apparently, she has learned a particular evil that is in the school faster than she could learn to be a Vice Principal.

    I gave Miss the vermicelli and she loved it. I was grateful for the advice from Mr Shiva in the staffroom later that evening after lunch. Took the time to work on those lesson plans.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:50 am – 3:52 pm)

07-NIL.

St. George’s College (Week #26) – Day #117

 Date for Entry: (Friday 21 April 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 22 April 2023)

[T3, W:01 – D:05*].

Dear Diary,

This morning I walked into the compound with Crystal. No other Georgians were with me. We spoke about the term and the way some people were behaving since the start of the term. The hall was out of bounds after assembly because of the Physical Education moderation that entire day.

Miss Roberts only showed up after lunch and she looked vexed based on how she was walking. I saw her coming down the corridor while sitting in 1L while Miss Gittens took the roll after lunch. I had some of their handouts to give back. I decided to give them back their slips from last term at the end of the next class.

A small portion of my morning was spent in the music room from the second period to the middle of the sixth period. I could not take in too much of the burning incense messing up the oxygen in the office. I needed a place to work and the library would have been too noisy to do what I had to do. The staffroom too was not the ideal place to work since the teachers would be busy entering marks and talking all the time.

I got a sheet of paper and worked on restructuring the Form 1 lesson topics I had planned out by the term previously. I did not even have many resources to work on a lesson plan. I had to leave six Form 6 students in the music room. They had a pan class during lunchtime. I did not know the teacher but I just stayed for three minutes and left.

The students in 1F had the full lesson completed with fifteen minutes left for school to be over. I had some of the students with confusion about the beaming. It seemed to me that a chart would really be necessary for the beaming topic after all. I didn’t go home straight after but went with Miss Gittens to Port-of-Spain on the Apostle’s two assignments and returned exactly ten in the night.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:32 am – 3:27 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #26) – Day #116

 Date for Entry: (Thursday 20 April 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 22 April 2023)

[T3, W:01 – D:04*].

** WhatsApp Picture from Uncle Ram.

Dear Diary,

One Georgian came with me to Valsayn this morning. During the early periods, I went to the library to get an exam on the grand staff completed. Because of time being limited to teach the Form 1 student everything before the end of the term, I knew it would not be used. I still decided to continue to make it for future use. It was still good to make for future use.

I had forgotten my yardstick mommy gave me to do chart making and they changed the Wi-Fi so I could not do much internetworks. I decided to go and meet Miss Roberts to speak about the topics  I would have to teach next. All she had me do was review the exam papers with the students and seeing that today a new topic should be done, we had to speak. Making my way to the music room I met Miss Roberts in the corridor and we began to speak about the Form 1s performance and what they had done in the Red Grade 1 book.

For the rest of this discussion, I was very angry. She did not have a plan but she “just like to go.” I did not find it very organised. And the suggestions given to me did not sound workable. I then began to have to explain for a seventh time that you must teach semiquavers to the students before attempting most of the exercises and that beaming would be a preposterous question raised by the students. They would not have known how to do both.

Instantly, she dropped the bomb right in my face and said, “Well, we will just have to teach them semiquavers.” The word “we” sounded like the word you. I felt so hurt because out of all the six times, she said, “Semiquavers are for Form 2! Don’t do it!” The same vexed face was maintained each time and I knew it had to be done sometime later. She left in a hurry until the end of school and I began to see that the questions she even gave me for the students as homework and in-class exercises were not suitable for the students to use. I had to go through the book and find better questions.

The school was out of legal paper and I thanked God that I had some in my draw that I brought from home. I got the two pages (10 & 23) copies for the students this evening. I only had fifteen minutes remaining for lunchtime after chatting with Doctor to rush down a plan to teach and introduce semiquavers and also beaming. This was certainly enough time. The seventh period was about to begin and the staffroom door was stuck. Thank God we had an emergency door.

Surprisingly, the beaming lesson was not as easy for them as I thought. I will have to come up with another method of delivering this lesson. I had to review all the notes we did from semibreve to quaver, making sure that the English name was written and then the America Fraction names were given. I then asked about the note below the quaver and nicely some of them remembered the semiquaver from the handbook that I made for them. I asked about the semiquaver rest and then showed them the value it carried.

I did not see Miss return to the compound to let her know what happened. I will have to continue in the same manner with the other two Form 1 classes. I saw there in 1L for a few minutes after school to read the message that Uncle Ram left for me from Vessigny. He had gone to drop off the books and everyone was really happy about it. I walked out of school that evening with Kiel, Crystal, and Janice.

Link(s):

• Thank You Card from Vessigny.**

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:46 am – 3:48 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #26) – Day #115

 Date for Entry: (Wednesday 19 April 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 22 April 2023)

[T3, W:01 – D:03*].

Dear Diary,

    No Georgians came with me this morning. I did not have breakfast because I had 1M for the first two periods. I went to them after getting the music room opened with their exam papers to return and do the same as I did with Form 1L and 1L yesterday. I saw that three students had marks mixed up. I didn’t see Miss Roberts for the morning to tell her. They were dismissed early and sent back to their classroom.

    During the third and fourth periods, I helped Miss Donald with her artist list for the Form 2 students. We had a short chat with Mrs Charles. Sometime after Janice returned, I left for the office until recess. I remained in the staffroom liming and working with the teachers in the lounge area while they continued to make last-minute coursework and put in marks.

    I continued to plan more lessons and work on plans for charts. I spent the last two days with Janessa, Gloria, and Donna. Didn’t take many rests because the topics I was working on need a lot of focus and thinking to strategus simplify them (Slurs & Ties chart). Had a nice ride with Miss Santana after school. She found out that I entered UWI at the age of sixteen and she said that some persons had to be over eighteen to enter. She was surprised that Mommy allowed me to attend UWI at that young age.

Link(s):

• Slurs & Ties – Chart Plans.**

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:15 am – 3:52 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #26) – Day #114

 Date for Entry: (Tuesday 18 April 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 22 April 2023)

[T3, W:01 – D:02*].

Dear Diary,

    Mr Gross and ‘Smiles’ came with me in the maxi this morning. I had breakfast in the art room this morning. Miss Gittens gave me some money to buy her a pie. The lady in the “Breakfast Express” had sold out her pies that morning so Daddy and I went to the bakery place opposite Courts. Their cost went up a third time by two dollars. We had chocolate to share before my immediate return to the office.

    ‘Ms Gloria’ that morning walked me over to the ‘music room’ to open the door. As soon as I walked in, I was horrified at the disorganization of the classroom area. I had 1L coming soon and the room was not prepared for them. Miss Roberts was one minute away from the compound when I called her. Surprisingly she came early to school and we had two more rows to fix before the students entered the classroom.

    The students’ papers were returned to them and we received some of the questions. The same was done for 1F later in the evening during the seventh and eighth periods but they needed the full duration of the time. They were nosier than 1L. I did not like doing the class in the ‘music room’. The experience there was very uncomfortable.

    Before lunchtime, I was on my way to the art room. I had a nice chat with Mr Bains about the special mark book I made to share. He had moderation that same day and I supposed marks to enter as all of the other teachers were trying to do as much as they could. I got to reinforce Miss Gittens’ mark book and paper it in the copyright ream wrapper. I got her one of my adhesive labels to label the mark book.

    When school was done, I felt really tired. I left sad in a way sending off the children no matter the struggle they put me in because Miss Roberts said that she would be taking over the Forms 1s from me this term. I was very concerned because I don’t know how she would ‘tamper’ or work with them since we are way behind. I walked out with Daysha, Kiel, Crystal and Janice that evening after school. A very creepy man was harassing Janice on our way to Curepe. We spoke about that before departing our ways.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:50 am – 3:25 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #26) – Day #113

Date for Entry: (Monday 17 April 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 22 April 2023)

[T3, W:01 – D:01*].

Dear Diary,

One Georgian was in the maxi this morning. The assembly went a bit late today. I walked with my song bog with George’s College song just in case they would have liked me to play it on the tenor pan for the student to sing. The change did not materialize. Miss Roberts asked me to supervise the 2M class in the music period during the third and fourth periods. They had some kind of accounting to do about the school’s graduation. I reviewed the exam papers that they did.

After recess, I was already back in the office and making my way to the library for the staff meeting. Some of the teachers were given some small chocolates the principal was sharing for her 33rd anniversary of teaching. A review of the mission statement was given and some statistics on the school’s performance in various subjects were shared. They did not come to me to help with it, so I suppose that was less work to do. There was a particular action plan sheet we were shown and I liked it. I hope it would help the school people be more organised. 

Miss Roberts got the topics that I had planned out for the entire academic year. She also wanted me to write out the page numbers that were completed in their red Eric Taylor. We did not speak about it after. When school was finished, I had a really good evening liming in the staffroom before being dropped off in Curepe.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:36 am – 5:28 pm)