St. George’s College (Week #67) – Day #304

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 30 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:04 – WD:16, (Td:4)*].

Dear Diary,

    I came to Valsayn with Kayla Wright next to me in the front of the back. She sat by the door with me in the middle. We walked in and I took my bags to Block K after signing in. The first 20 minutes went by. “Jess” was waiting outside of 2L and Maria was coming out from attendance. She said that Miss Gittens would be coming in later today. The class was given their college song worksheet.

    In the second period, they were taken to the music room to work on the song on the steel pan instruments. I went to get my phone from my bag to get the rest of the timesheet completed in the office. I decided to do over the assumption form. Miss Mohammed said that she liked how I didn't stick compared to the others.

    I went back to the staff room to collect the bags and then to the art room. Miss Gittens was still not there. It took me a while to get a place to work on the teacher's desk and began working at 12:56 p.m. When I got to the staff room to chill out for class, “Choo Choo” was there alone. We spoke for a little bit until the other teachers came back for his staff meeting. We both learnt about it together. I did not even know the staff meeting was going on.

    The meeting was over at 1:30 p.m. and then Crystal called me to go over the same timesheet. She said that my signature was too big for the principal to sign. Only late into the beginning at the office desk, Kiel gave me a legal size sheet. I continued to fill out the form on the letter size that I was given earlier. I had to go back to the staff room to continue my journal entry. I was not sure if “Jess” went to class.

    It was already minutes past 1:15 p.m. Dr. Blandin was looking for someone to supervise 3M and Crystal took it. She first asked me and I said, oh go on, with a big loud sigh. She laughed and asked me if I didn't like them. I remember the principal eating a box lunch and she said that she thought that I had signed for her. She laughed. There was a special code that was shared with me today. I hope one day I will find out the meaning too.

    I had wondered if Miss had gotten through with her SBA submissions. It was only at the end of school that Maria waited to help Miss Gittins with the marks. I helped Susan staple her Form One Spanish exam papers first and then went back to the bench outside the art room where Miss Gittins and Maria were sitting. This took me forever to wait. We had a longer way to get off the compound.

    The office would have been locked so I kept my heavy laptop bag at home and then brought it back the next day. I had the children's library card finished and got 2M, 3F and 3L uploaded. Some mistakes were there and half marks made the mathematics problematic in the previous mark book. Only one and a half rounds of games until it was no longer possible to stay awake were done. Hopefully, the APC Library email will come out tomorrow.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:01 am – 6:13 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #67) – Day #303

Date for Entry: (Monday 29 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:04 – WD:15, (Td:3)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning was an early waking. I had to go toilet and that plus the nice warm water kept me back. There was a new driver for me named Top Dog. The road was super empty on the way down to Valsayn. The driver took a straight ride through the main road.

    As of many times, I was the first OJT to arrive in the office. It was lovely to see the teachers in the staff room. As I got back from the restroom “Choo Choo” came and gave me a nice slice of homemade sponge cake wrapped up in a white pricemart style hand towel. It was great and she had pink icing from scratch on it. Assembly went by long but not roll call.

    I met with “Jess” outside 1F and we went to 1M and I translated the Spanish sentences on the board while we waited for the students to change into their costumes. Then the class time went by. We had more waiting for 1F to get back from their class, change and then come over to the hall.

    Miss Pope had to kick us out of the hall because she had a physical education class with 2F. I saw that they were doing some basketball. I think it may have been netball. I did not pay attention to which kind of ball game it was. I saw Jay and Jesse holding their basketball hoops while all of us were coming out with our chairs from the hall.

    I sat with “Hammy”, Shaquille and Ahmed at the back in the hot corridor outside of the hall towards the car park sign. “Vishy” joined us after his group performance. I needed to go to the staff room after, just to cool down from all of that heat. I did not stay for the last performance during recess. I wished that I had a bigger bottle of cold water.

    Disappointingly, I had forgotten to pack my flash drive. I couldn't help Miss Gittins with her mark book again. There was supposed to be an MMT meeting now in the 5th period. They had no room to go. I began to work on a membership card for the library by pen and paper. I ended up finishing it in the art room. Needed to get some heat because the cold was building up in my nose. Miss Gittins's suggestion was to put the date of birth at the top of the registration and the registration date below. I had to insert the contact information after. This was the children's library card.

    I feel as if the adult's card will be done as a borrow from the children's card already made. I went to get copies from Miss Gittins delivered to her and returned to the staff room. Mrs. Jaikaran called me out to pay me. As we were about to enter the building, “Chuchu” said, “Mr Ali yuh must pick the right people lime with. Look she ain’t even reach in de buildin’ two minutes and she feelin’ cold already.” She laughed out with the two of us.

    Dr. Jogie stayed with me after school. Soon after, “Miss Celia” came back and said that she was going to ‘plan a storm’ tomorrow and try to upload SBAs because of the poor internet. I met Kiel waiting for the bus shuttle and he said that he was already done with his time sheet. I stayed back with the art students. We got a ride out with the parents of Miss Alyssa Guy.

    I went home to get out of the way and I had the three or four sides to the children's library card typed up. There was excess space remaining in the document. Perhaps a poem would be nice to add or I would have to find something else to insert on the card. I tried to fight and get Genesis 25 completed, but it was difficult. Then I finished faster than I thought.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:01 am – 4:25 pm) 

St. George’s College (Week #66) – Day #302

Date for Entry: (Friday 26 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:03 – WD:14, (Td:)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning I came a little late. I was wondering how the day would have been with the responsibility that was pushed on me the attendance was done. I went off to the staff room and saw “Jess” outside the hall on my way to Block K. It seemed as if she was taking down the names of the students going on the trip. I just didn't expect to see that many people were going.

    Dr. Allison was not there and I remembered while going to make my updates in the logbook she commented as if I had given up on her. I told her that I decided to wait for whenever she would be ready instead. Not many teachers were in the rooms as yet. I had my pie long after going back to wait for someone in the office to make prints. Kiel was trying to assist me and then Ezekiel came and told him what to do.

    The first period was taken up because of religious instruction and then there was a VAPA meeting in the second period. There was a very early message from Miss Gittins asking for us to meet her. I went to get Miss Jones and Miss Gittins's request for her to come to join the meeting. I went to get Miss Jones and we had no meeting. I did not see Janice for the day after. We started on a bit late but were able to get something done. “Jess” and Roberts were both on the field trip today.

    I had 1L in the third period and was not sure what to do with them. The children were few. There were a lot of the groups unprepared. However, some of them had their costumes already and were changing. We had prepared groups, which were three of them, to try and do something for the college song presentation. That was a full class. They did not do the worksheet.

    The recess was too short. I took the two small packs of emergency and walked over to give Miss it in the art room. I had 2F right after recess. I in 10 minutes late to class, but that was alright. I had given the children the worksheet to do. Das, George, Kyra and Avisha were cheating.

    A review was done afterwards. I got into a review of keyboard pitches, including black keys, accidentals, tones and semitones, and major scale construction. I had them transcribe F major and then tested the tonic triad. Kelis gave me the wording she made in words for the major scale tones and semitones pattern. This was given to me on a sheet from a copybook written in pencil 10 minutes before the class was over. “Varry” and Jesse were playing boxing and Parrot decided to go back to his phone. I did not see Mr Gill return from the toilet at all.

    “Choo Choo” and Mrs Ramsingh saw me smiling when I returned to the staff room and I told them that I was finished for the day. They said that they were happy for me. It was my first time trying out a guillotine in the office, but the measuring did not do accurately. The machine was too old and rusty, and I did not want to injure myself with it before that could happen. I got at least one design for the APC library logo.

    Before lunch was over, there was the first occurrence of a school fight for me in Georges. I believe there was a fight by the 1L students between a boy and a girl. One of the three words from the night costumes was used in the incident I've been told by “Choo Choo”. She commented asking me, “Mr Ali. What alyuh does be teachin’ dem children to do with swords?” Only “Miss Celia” got to joke that had to come with what we teach the Georgian to do with the sword.

    I went to see Mr. Bain, but he was not there, and the same for Miss Gittens. It took a while, and then she came with a lot of photocopies to batch, and then Mr. Bain came to us late into the 7th period. She was copying an English accent and telling him that he had forgotten his appointment with me. This meeting finished after 3 p.m. in his woodwork room over the laptop. The guards were done locking up block A, and the staff room had to be opened back up with keys by “Miss Bianca.” The bins were filled and would have been to remain there probably until Monday morning.

    It took me an hour and 46 minutes to write this entire journal entry, which felt like five hours. I sat outside the library under the tent to write this entry. “Miss Pope” was talking too loud and priestess-like on a marriage topic that she was upsetting me and telling Javid. Even though the beach time was so far away, it reminded me of when she upset me on the topic.

    I met “Jess” liming and chatting in there before Miss Kittens and Quincy went to the same place. We had a very long wait that evening to get home, and then I didn't get much done except cutting call cards and subject cards with the guillotine. Four large sheets of Bristol board were cut. It now became five long sheets of Bristol board with the previous sheet I had cut by hand with scissors. I hope that it will be useful for tomorrow's meeting in the library. It was not minutes after 1 AM after doing all this cutting.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:08 am – 6:12 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #66) – Day #301

Date for Entry: (Thursday 25 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:03 – WD:13, (Td:1)*].

Dear Diary,

    I woke up late this morning but got on the compound as soon as the bell for assembly rang. People were already waiting in the lobby area, so Ms. Chote was holding on in the office. I went to Block K and had breakfast. I needed my pencil case. Somehow I left my pencil case in the art room yesterday afternoon. I could not do any work over the computer last night. Ms. met me in the corridor after roll call and we walked over there passing Ms. Daniels with a big joke.

    Not many of the Form 5 students were there today. I heard that French Orals was going on this morning. I went back to get my stuff for class. The students were in the hall. There was shocking news that Ms. will not be coming tomorrow to go somewhere with Ms. Roberts. I wondered what could happen if I were to stay home too. Spoke with Jess after and she was disappointed as usual with the music score that I could not send her.

    I left on the car park side of the hall and saw “Kirish”, “Blush”, “Teddy” and “Kelvin” sitting by a bench. I asked them about the Kman man song at recess time. I told them to come with me to the office and I would play the song for them. They waited outside the office while I wrestled to get the bag with the laptop and turn it on.

    The laptop took forever to turn on and I was so disappointed it took them 4 minutes of waiting. We sat around the bench facing the entrance gate and I played the full song for them. They seemed very impressed looking through the score by the time. It would have been nice to give them a copy of the score but didn't want them to ill use it for something else. It was also an educational place so I could not have given it to them.

    As recess came to an end, I was about to go back to the staff room. However, I remembered Ms Gittens wanted to get some subject registers so I got them printed from Ezekiel and then took them to the art room until the end of lunchtime. She had students of 1M in the art room and they were doing the introduction to colors. I sat with “Reba” and “Shem” at the teacher's table and I wrote in names to the subject register that I got transferred to the ones I got printed for Ms. Gittens. She did the rest of them and I stapled them into the year groups.

    Jess and I had 2F today for the last two periods. Towards the end, Jess was asking about the PDF for the Georgian song. This was not something to give since the school was ungrateful. She did not tell me anything about what she would have liked to have done in 1L tomorrow. I went up to Curepe after giving up waiting for Brother Mark to come and pick up Ms Gittens.

    Daddy and I went to Isa but he did not have any ivory-laid covers so I will have to email the document again tomorrow and send those covers from home. Thankfully I had some extras. That night I got an old sheet of Bristol board and cut them in 3 inches by 5 inches. They were alright. I will have to clean the blades of the guillotine to prevent any stains on the sheets when they are cut.

    I was also able to finish the CV for Presentation College and email it to the school. The night ended so quickly and Auntie spoke with me some minutes to 11 before she eventually went to sleep. It was nice getting to share with her the school cards and the subject cards that I tried to create using the guillotine.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:55 am – 3:47 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #66) – Day #300

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 24 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:03 – WD:12, (Td:6)*].

Dear Diary,

    I got to George's with Dion in the backseat of the Maxi. I got signed in and felt a go down to block K. I had breakfast and didn't like how there was still no soap in the toilet room. I paid Mrs Ramsing for the sweets since she was counting money. Miss Kittens was not in school as yet. I went to check on Dr. Allison but she had Miranda in there for a long time which is equal to giving her the attendance for the 7 months. I went to chat with Miss Mary and “Miss Alicia” and went to check up on the 6 students in the music room.

    I tried to contact Presidential College after recess but the lady gave me another number to call after 11 am. They did not open until 11 am. I went back to the staff room to finish yesterday's journal entry and begin today's entry. There was a good joke from Mr Charles about a police lady at a stop sign and Miss Lorraine.

    Recess came and I felt nervous. I hoped that the job would be something that I could do and that I could find some employment. There was a bench available outside the library and I called the number given to me by the lady earlier. A gentleman answered and as I asked about the position he told me to tell him about myself. He said to still send the resume by email and call them back by August. I forgot to ask for a name and which part of August to call.

    I stayed back in the staff room working on the resume I did for the OJT applications and there were a lot of nice accomplishments given to me by Mrs Ramsingh. Sadly, we had no internet and then the links for some of the steel pan arrangements things could not have been inserted. Mrs Ramsing was very surprised when I asked her to take a look through to see if there was anything needed doing. She was able to help me change one sentence but I took it out after finding it irrelevant.

    At 1:05 pm I got up to go and see if Dr. Blandin would be ready. She had a lot of paper around her and said they got kept back maybe in the next hour. I wondered if to go back to Block K or if to stay. Teachers were leaving the compound already. “Jess” had given me a copy of her schema ‘work’ for term three. She seemed very busy this afternoon just like “Tia” who wasn't here for the past few days. Dr Allison said she wasn't feeling so well and left early.

    Maria wasn't here so Miss and I had to travel out with Quincy. He was trying to figure out how to use Canva even I too did not know how to use it. She shared a song called “The Call” which didn't seem like something I liked. The message and rhymes were beautiful.

    I had a class with “Yash” last night. We spent an hour and forty minutes reviewing key signatures in brief and then moving on to tonic triads. I then pushed in the slurs and tied the lesson immediately to avoid having another session to teach. The next class would be beaming flag notes and the final lesson after providing if the homework is done. Only one question was answered.

    I continued trying to figure out the guillotine last night. At first, trying to get the sword up was not easy. It had to be pushed to the right and immediately it went up. Auntie Vangy called me and told me the names of the parts. More time will be needed to figure out the measurements properly. I think there is an error with the grid that was printed on the surface of the guillotine. Eventually, tiredness took me. It came earlier tonight and I had to go and sleep.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:10 am – 4:27 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #66) – Day #299

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 23 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:03 – WD:11, (Td:3)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning Tyrell was waiting by Lockhart Street. His maxi was behind me. There was one Georgian boy and the other from Form 1, “Mr. Bethelmy”, who walked so quickly. I got signed in and sat by the school computer. The Principal walked in and there was a three-sentence conversation. The computer was taking forever like the internet so I didn't bother to try to send my email again. I would rather wait until I reach home to send the resume to Presentation College.

    I went to Block K to get my spicy pie eaten and then headed over to the art room. Miss met me in the corridor. It was nice to see everyone coming in early. We had a good time. Before I headed back to the art room, I had to find the markers on a pencil. The green labels for the envelopes were done in the first two periods.

    At 9:20 a.m., I went back to make copies for the students and head to class. “Jess” was not there, so I made the children go into their groups to figure out what they were going to do for their presentation. They were very wild and hard to control. Miss Patel had to come in and quiet them. Thankfully, the period was short. I packed up and left for the staff room.

    I got a message from “Jess” to bring the evening class down to the music room to pan. The entire class was fully set in her order, but half left the first two bars in verse one of the George’s Anthem. The same was done for the second half of the class. Mr. Pierre was still in 2M, so I went to the staff room and left a message for “Ash”.

    Only by returning to the building after reinforcing the second batch of eight envelopes, did I meet “Ash” and went through the pages of the homework which was supposed to be brought in. None of it was done, sadly. I left question marks and went on my way.

    Only at 1:15 pm after lunch, I got up to meet with Dr. Allison to work on lates and absences. I ended up trying to find her but went to write my day's account. She brought Miss Harris into the room with her, and they began to tell me that she still hadn't got time to finalize everything. I went back to block K and worked on the entry among nicer companies.

    I forgot to mention that at the end of recess, I shared a Nature Valley miniature-pack snack with the teachers. They seemed to enjoy it. Mrs Ramsingh opened a pack of rough tots. She shared with me twice “Choo Choo”, Miss Soodeen, and Miss Sargram. We ended up speaking about Chips Ahoy, Oreo, Day and Nibbles, and how they lost their tot and just sugar-filled in them. School ended faster. I left second to last. Dr. Jogi left before me, and I reminded him about the tutor anthem for the election meeting tomorrow.

    I went to the art room with my bags and stayed there. Miss came in a while when I almost finished the envelope reinforcements. I told her we could multitask by calling grades for pieces with her. I labelled all the envelopes in blue since Janice did not come at all to do them. We left with “Maria”, but the student Percy had to travel because we didn't have more space.

    I remembered “Miss Berkeley” admiring the handwriting that I did on the envelopes. There was one she liked a lot and said she wanted that particular one for her art pieces. That particular envelope had a fancy letter A. I took Miss Kitten's pencil and wrote “Miss Berkeley” on the top right-hand corner and showed the girl which one was whose.

    I went home to enjoy some nice crispy skin pork. The rest of the evening was emotional in the gallery, remembering my one week with Miss Paul in school. I didn't like the message that “Jess” had sent me at all. I didn't want to do much Bible study again.

    I ended up working on the introduction and the first two verses for “The Shape of My Heart.” I had some cheese balls and watched a show called “Training Day.” Somehow that show was very twisted and concerning. I did not watch the end of the show, but hopefully someday if it shows back on TV I'll take another look.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:50 am – 4:42 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #66) – Day #298

Date for Entry: (Monday 22 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:03 – WD:10, (Td:4)*].

Dear Diary,

    On the bus route, “Mr. Edwards” came out of a bus and we travelled to Valsayn in the same maxi. Roti's met us and he stayed back chatting with Daddy. The office was dark and empty as usual, and two parents patiently waited.

    As I was finishing up my spicy chicken pie, “Choo Choo” shared a lovely chocolate cupcake with me. I didn't even remember to take a picture of it. She did ask me at some point if I to bring another for me tomorrow. I said yes. Then I told her thank you.

    I met “Jess” in 2L. She had the seats and chairs rearranged to make a seating chart. The class was divided into groups by the columns to sing the college song, and do an act, and were marked out of 25. Participation 5 points, lyrics 10 points, and pitch 10 points. We walked to Miss Gitten's after. I remained to help her review booklets and pieces 1-3 from students. She asked me to do an independent markup.

    At recess time, I got the new syllabus appendix with the rubrics printed. We had to figure out the tables for creativity, design, and IE. I still have to find out what IE means. Piece 3 had different tables. I went to see Dr. Allison, but she asked for half an hour. I got lost away helping Miss Kittens. We finished with the documents that had to be printed and the amount. It would be better to have Miss review and have them print.

    I went back to see Dr. Allison. She was out in the office and she asked if I was here for the lates and absences, but we rescheduled for tomorrow. After school, Miss and I continued to work. We left the compound at 5.14 p.m. I had eight envelopes, stapled, trotted, ruled, and labels would be done tomorrow. We had to travel out and meet Daddy.

    That night, I had a lot of work to do. I had something else to do and finish first before the labels for the Visual Arts students. The last work was to t-shirt payments form for the MTC unity work. Miss found it better to type in the names since it would be plenty to write in. 

    We also discovered that people with 3x sizes needed another column, so I had the form revised and then added WhatsApp over to Miss. I enjoyed more cheese balls and got a call from another about a job at President College out the road by me. Hopefully, I get the time to call and find out about the job.

LINK(S):

• Image of Visual Arts SBA Labels.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:50 am – 5:14 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #65) – Day #297

Date for Entry: (Friday 19 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:02 – WD:09, (Td:3)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning was Andrew's clinic appointment. It took a long while before I could have gotten down to school. As soon as I signed, I went down to block K.

    As I was about to get down to the staff room, “Jess” called me out. She was taking 1F back to their classroom. It sounded as if it was already the third period. I didn't eat my pie until after 12:30 PM because Dr. Blandin's appointment took up time and doing work for Miss Kittens was after recess. I saw the 1F children planning out their performances and then in the second period they worked on the song.

    I left them at 10:30 AM, 10 minutes before recess to head back to Miss Gittens. She spoke with me about the scheme of work. We had a hard time trying to turn on the laptop password. Miss Ali and I laughed in the office when she got it to work. I went back and showed her the schemes of work that I had put together for her some terms ago. They were sent a print again. During the fourth period, she went to her MMT meeting.

    My meeting to help Dr Blandin insert the latest on absences into the school Excel sheet was then resumed. We made some important discoveries while I had the opportunity to proofread the work. Strangely, there were frozen fields in the document that could not have been moved. We had some good laughs, Dr. Blandin and I. Well, I did all of them. She was tired at the end of the process. We had a joke about “Jess” title and when we added “Jess”, I told her. Now you can add in your MS without the R. She said, “It looks like you came with your jokes today, Mr Ali.”

    Dr. Blandin told me before I left the office that she would work on the figures for March 2024 and she might try to have it ready for Monday. We were also able to send me a blank copy of the document to recreate my attendance form. I hoped that my idea would make it easier for her to do the work. I also hoped that my idea would be easily materialized. I got my OJT timesheet printed after this in the fifth period. The rain was rushing down and Rhea was waiting for a church's delivery man. A boy's birthday was going on in her form class.

    In the art room, I got to the last two of eight envelopes reinforced. While leaving, Miss was making her way back. She said that the MMT meeting was conducted with Dr. Lubian-Batiste, who had conducted the professional development day in the last week of last June. It was important to us because the Principal wasn't there and Dr. Allison was with me. We needed to know who was the one heading that meeting.

    Lunch finished too quickly because I got back in the second half of lunchtime in the staff room. Jess and I had a class with 1L. The number looked small. The Muslim children were given a poem to work out. Only at the second end of the eighth period, the song with the track was worked on with the students.

    Once finished packing, I met “Jess” and Miss chatting outside Mr. Bain's woodwork room. I told her that I had some paperwork to go and do. It took me too long to do. I had to do over the timesheet and felt better doing it at home. The resumption of duty form was completed in blue. My blacking pen was done. Sorrowfully, Miss Mohammad was out of black pens. She had none at all. “Maria” the rest of us had a slightly early leave this afternoon.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:53 am – 5:03 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #65) – Day #296

Date for Entry: (Thursday 18 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:02 – WD:08, (Td:2)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning I overslept and woke up with a heat cold which did not make me feel good until 10 am. I signed in a book and then went over to building K. “ChooChoo” was there alone. We were eventually joined by Mrs. Santana and Mr. Charles. Soon after, as soon as I opened the WhatsApp to read Miss Gittins's message, she wanted to see me by the bench. I went over there with my pencil case and she had some Form Five students around her.

    She greeted me and asked for a laptop borrowed from one of the students. We all went into the art room and that was where I had been for the entire day. I sat with Miss and typed up the new CXC timetable for the Visual Arts students. There were two documents to do, which was easy. Three students were needed to give their candidates numbers. Afterwards, it was period three when “Miss Lewis” from 1L came and asked for the attendance sheet from “Jess”.

    I had to walk back to Block K and meet “Jess” in 1L. Janice was with the 2M children since the Form Fives needed the art room to continue their packaging. Once the letter was completed, there were forms to print. My email couldn't work, so the student permitted me to log out of their email first. Miss Gittins had to log in, but then the email got kicked out by an internet cut. I gave the girl back her computer.

    I took up the bag of Bristol board that Stephen brought from the office and my yardstick from Calvin and I went to the corner of the room and got the envelope staples. Some of the students at first were looking as if they were wondering why I was stapling the Bristol board so many times like a maniac. The lines were done afterwards. However, I forgot opposite sides will have a different measurement because of the difference in the size of the paper. So that was a quick erase and plug-in of track points.

    By the middle of lunchtime, all eight envelopes were lined and I took the green marker from Miss to do the criterion label, which we laughed about. When Janice came back she did the labelling in blue marker, we met during the seventh period while I was in the office’s storeroom looking for things to carry back to the art room. She then told me that she didn't put markers on the list, so I took the materials and copies for Miss back to the art room with the assistance of “Miss Berkeley.”

    To the end of school, everyone except Miss and I remained with the art students. I think the art student Nicholas was singing a nice piece of rap music. It was very nice to draw up more lines from the Bristol board. He didn't know I was paying attention to what he was singing. Eventually, “Maria” called Miss to find out if I was going with them and I said yes. Early I got my bags long after Miss had gone to the washroom. I too needed to go.

    We both remained in the room the entire day working. As soon as I got home, I went to finish the “Crown Him with Many Crowns” arrangement. It was emailed to Mr Sharma for printing. After working on the journal entry for all of the day, I hope to get a lot done in Bible study now before the rest of the night is over.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:30 am – 4:00 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #65) – Day #295

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 17 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:02 – WD:07, (Td:1)*].

Dear Diary,

    I had an early waking at 4 o'clock. Thankfully there was an early arrival to school. After signing, Dr. Blandin called me in and she asked me if I had forgotten her yesterday. I told her that I didn't know I would be sick yesterday.

    I had a nice chat with “Choo-Choo” and Mr. Marlon while eating a cheese pie before going back to Dr. Landon in the Vice-Principal's office. She showed me an Excel sheet that had the types of leaves and absences along with times late and minutes late. There were two copies of their form printed. This form is what I had printed for the Vice-Principal's use when Ms. Trote was there.

    I saw that Dr. Blandin used one of the forms for the sick leave and occasional leave and the second copy would have been for the minutes and times late. Plans came to my mind for a new Excel file to be created. This would simplify the work by adding in formulae to calculate the sick leave, all the occasional leave, all the unauthorized leave, unauthorized leave, times late and all the minutes late.

    Ms Mustapha came with Mr Ramdath to the office to give CAPE moderation dates and also to prepare a plan for a retirement function for Mrs Sawh. There was a song they were trying to remember for the death of Paul Walker that she had liked. “Ms Celia” was right behind me after doing the rest of the supervision.

    Right at 9.30, I had to leave for class with 1F. “Jess” was already there reviewing the school song words. It was wonderful to hear the children sing out the entire song with the YouTube recording. I sat with Brad and we had some laughs of a few stops in between. Writing out my journal entries from Monday until today was not so easy. A lot of writing was required.

    By the end of recess, I went off to see Dr. Allison again in the office. She was somehow waiting for me to meet her there to continue the leaves and absences. It was in the middle of the fifth period. We got typing in the last bits of unchecking. I got my desk cleaned out. I did not take my stuff over to Block A again. Ms. Gittens had left and after lunch, Maria told me that Susan had left, so she wanted to leave by 3:30 p.m. I met Jess by 1F. “Mr. Marlon” spoke with me about Rosita. She didn't sound to be so nice after the first week of school.

    We had 2F this evening and they were unsettled as usual to get them to learn the words. A lot of struggle occurred throughout the exercise. We met back in Block C and there was a conversation about the same 2F class. “Maria” took Gabriella to the car and we left early in the evening. I liked the early morning chat with Kavita, “ChooChoo” and “Marlon” today. Kavita learned that I lived in Tunapuna when we spoke about Sunday school performance on Sunday with “Welcome Holy Spirit.”

    I went home and while waiting for class with “Yash”, I went to fix the church's library catalogue. It was that evening after watching some YouTube videos, I learned how to freeze a row which was the heading and insert a filter to make every other row coloured. I ended up changing the entire arrangement of text and added titles or card numbers, sections of the file form, and borrowing cards in case we use them.

    The class was swiftly started at 7:11 pm. A review of key signatures in brief was done along with topics covered. The topic for tonight was tonic triads. He had questions about inversions and got confused. I just gave him the idea of repositioning and gave him the homework. It was in the grade 2 book, pages 10 to 11.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:45 am – 3:56 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #65) – Day #294

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 16 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:02 – WD:06, (Td:6)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning I worked on Genesis 10-16. The charts for Genesis 10-12 were not done still. After the working area, I had another clean-up. I had a list of borrowing cards and other library documents sorted for printing via email to ISA. Dr Hannah only texted me back after 9.31 pm. She said that the ideas for a library stamp will have to go through the Christian Education Committee for approval. It was the first time I saw the abbreviation CEC before figuring it out.

    The copies came later in the evening. Maybe ISA was not there. He got my message apparently when Daddy got to the store. The classification books that I made were lovely. I sat in the gallery later in the evening singing Badgerans by Self-Edge from the Presbyterian Badgerans book.

    I saw that ISA printed the boring cards on ivory paper instead of board which was my mistake. However, it gave me the chance to see how the margins worked with the document. I will have to adjust it and hopefully, more things will fit. That could hopefully be tomorrow. I took the rest of the evening to upload journal entries from term 2. I still have a lot to do for the rest of this term. I pray that it will be an easy flow to do. In Jesus' name.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:58 am – 4:48 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #65) – Day #293

Date for Entry: (Monday 15 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:02 – WD:05, (Td:5)*].

Dear Diary,

    I woke up late this morning. My eye was swollen somehow. I saw “Miss Gloria” by the bus route crossing the road to get my pie. I signed a school book and went to Block K to eat breakfast. Still had some time before class at 1 am. “Jess” had asked me to make copies of the college song. She was going through the woods with the students again like yesterday when I got back. I was glad that some of them had their copies from term 1. There was a lot of trouble in bar 17 with the A3.

    After recess, we had 2L and there was the ending of the hangman game that Jess was playing with them. She asked if I wanted to take the lead for this session so I did the work of teaching the text to the children. We had issues with remembering the words as expected but when it was time for the melody I let “Jess” continue. She said I was wicked.

    At the end of our session, she told me the reason why she wanted the other folk songs as steelpan arrangements. She told me about the national songs that she wanted to teach the children for music festivals and other competitions.

    I met Miss Solomon in the library to find out about the book label tape and printer. She said that I would have to purchase it online. It was the same for the Dewey Decibel Classification System guidebooks. We didn't know what would have been inside the books that we saw in Amazon but there was a set of 4 volumes for the entire collection of Dewey Classification. As Miss Solomon and I sat down in the library I began to see rain setting up in the sky.

    I told Miss Gittens about leaving in the corridor and then walked out. Daddy and I went to Isa. A nice lady driver drove me to Kirip again. I think this was the 2nd time she drove me from Valsane to Kirip. We left everything by Isa and I left some instructions and binding. The bank was the next stop and we were there for 4 hours. Daddy sat down and I stood all the duration.

    I got home and waited for the sun to go down to do my bible work. That was the plan but sadly not a reality. I ended up making a Dewey guide for us in the church library. I also worked on a borrowing card. It was very exciting indeed to learn the name. The borrowing card is one found in a small pocket behind the front cover of a book. The first version was 2 halves of a letter-size page. The other was 3 columns and a letter-size page. Both were in landscape positioning. Rameez was supposed to visit us again. I hoped they would be able to get through what they were doing. I still feel very proud of this borrowing card. It looks very beautiful and neat.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(9:00 am – 2:30 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #64) – Day #292

Date for Entry: (Friday 12 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:01 – WD:04, (Td:4)*].

Dear Diary,

    I came to Valsay with “Mackai” in his maxi this morning. I was already awake, but to get up was not so easy. “Mackai” was a rough driver. I saw Crystal join us, and then Khalon came in from 1F. As soon as I signed the OJT logbook, I took my things down to Block K.

    “Choo Choo” and Marvin were both chatting. Not many of the teachers had come as yet. The ships made me burp, and as I apologised “Choo Choo” said, “It's okay, Mr. Ali. It's better out than in.” I decided to go through my messages before class. There wasn't any from the MEATT people. The librarian's meeting was still on, but for 5 o'clock. The office staff was now probably ignoring me. “Choo Choo” came and asked me.

    I went back to the staff room, and it wasn't good to do the Bible study there. I might have had to take my table outside by a white bench in the corridors. At this time, I was met by Mr Ramdat, who was helping Lexie pay for her labs. When they left, I also remembered Jess sitting next to me during recess time. She said that she had supervision with 3M. I felt that would have been Miss Robert's class, and she wasn't here.

    At lunchtime, I rest in the staff room. The laptop somehow took longer to charge. 2M today had the lyrics of their George's College songs to name. I did not do the lesson when she asked. There was a quick rush to leave today. Miss Gittens took my bag to Mr. Raymond's car, and I met them there. I had a good clean out of my office desk drawers.

    Thankfully, the current was restored for a temporary time of 14 days. We will need to do some paperwork for it to become permanent. I hope that I will not stay in darkness for much longer. The entire second week of the Easter vacation until now was not that easy. I hope that the current will come back, and the hot room won't be cluttered without a fan.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:58 am – 3:10 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #64) – Day #291

Date for Entry: (Thursday 11 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:01 – WD:03, (Td:3)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning was an early wake. No electricity at all in the house. I only got Genesis chapter 5 completed. I had to go toilet again and it was time after 8 to arrive.

    As soon as I was about to walk in from crossing the road, “Miss Celia” popped her car horn and she gave me a ride into the compound. Miss Santana was already going back to her car and angry with an upper school girl. Miss Ali had asked me to help her carry her pot of sawine into the office. Some parents were waiting patiently while I got signed into the logbook.

    I took my bag and went up to the K building on the car park side. Miss Mary and “Miss Alicia” were chatting sitting by their door. I gave them a wave goodbye and Miss Gittens wasn't in the art room or 2L. Maybe she was in the assembly. I ate my pie in the staff room. Many of the teachers were eating their breakfast as well. It was their breakfast that they had organised. Miss Mustapha asked if “I do barfie” and she laughed when I said yes in a particular way. Mr Charles was happy to get one also.

    The roll call was very short. I met Tris by the sliding doors in the lobby of Block K and we walked down to 1M. Mrs Jaikaran spoke two sentences with me while speaking with “Miss Gloria”. Class attendance was short and I almost forgot to send out the roll sheet. Just did the class chat for the double period. I sat with “Mr Williams” and “Mr Paltoo” too.

    When we got to 1F “Jess” sent me to get copies of Georgia's Anthem. I had to wait. Tia came into the office to do something. We met Mr Baines who came too with his computer. I tried to get the PDF on the computer while Miss Ali ate her doubles on the side when she investigated Mr Baines' computer. Finally, I got the copies and Miss was teaching the children the words. At recess, I used the washroom and went to work on Genesis chapters 7 and 8. It felt too much to do so I stopped and listened to Donna share what happened with the 3F parents.

    In the second half of lunchtime, I tried to copy “Man, Man” to work on at night when there would be no current at all. “Jess” came and had to call me for class when she got into the building. The lead sheet was in 1L but handed out and we went through the lyrics. She looked angry when the Muslim students had gone back to the library without her knowing. After school I got some copies of the attendance register for classes tomorrow.

    I got a ride with Mr Greenaway to Happiness in Curepe. Miss Gittens went to the lower one in about 3 minutes. The night was extremely hot. Aunty brought roti and goat for me. I asked her to keep it in her fridge at her home for me because we had no current at all to heat the food. It seemed as if the bible reading would have been better to do in school. Struggling to hold the camera phone light on above the book was too much to do and my eyes felt like straining. The inner chapters in school would give me time at night to work on “Man Man”. The night was hot again. I wish somebody was there to chat with. Maybe they might have been able to cheer me up.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:05 am – 4:29 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #64) – Day #290

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 09 April 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 20 July 2024)

[T2, W:01 – WD:02, (Td:2)*].

Dear Diary,

    There was a very difficult job to wake up this morning. I slept until 6.30 am before getting out of bed and had to catch myself. As I got out of the maxi, I noticed that the man on my right was Dion. We walked in to see Miss Santana and “Miss Celia” walking back to their cars. Miss Mustapha had a nice red outfit. It seemed like that was everyone’s outfit for today, the colour red. I signed in and then went down to Block K. Someone took the soap bottle on the second day of school and then the toilet area was leaking out into the hallway.

    The bell went by and I was going to finish breakfast and find “Jess”. She was already in 2M. She did the same chat for the first period and left me to play hangman with 2M. I did not like this idea at all but went with it. The choice for me would be to review accidentals with tones and semitones.

    Thankfully, the second period finished faster. 1L ended up going down to the music room and I went to see “Jess” in the art room. It was very nice to see “O'Malley” in the corridor. I went back to the art room from Block K to get the performance slips that I had for them since term one. “Jess” came with me to Block K and Mr. Samlal told us that his nose was bleeding. This was very shocking to me. It was strange to find out that he had hit his nose into Twinkler's head. Very unbelievable.

    The new student sat in front next to Amir. The rest of the class was the same chat that was for the previous classes. I sat with Ms. Cummingham and wrote in the journal entry for this morning. I hope Mr. Samlal's nose gets better. He didn't seem alright afterwards. I loved being in the staff room. The staff meeting was about to begin after recess in the library.

    The principal started with a set induction with a question, What is 1 plus 1? She said that it was the same within a team and said that sometimes we do things deliberately. Someone says things to you and you must take the positive answer with respect. People can be going through things at different times coming to school. There was a speech from Zariel on the yearbook that they wanted to do. Today's meeting had a review of many different aspects of the last meeting. As well as a lot of dates and new plans for the term. I learnt about parliamentary privilege as part of the meeting. We learnt that in parliamentary privilege if your name is mentioned in the logbook, you are entitled to see and copy that note which was entered. The rest of the information can be found in my book three of the school's days log.

    What was very surprising after the meeting, I was down to my final four lines of writing in that particular book. I had a lot of headaches and eye pain after that long meeting. Many teachers were making noise again after the end. At this point, it was very surprising to come to the end of my second notebook for journal entries. I felt to leave the library and enter back to Block K’s staff room. The air conditioning was wonderful. They were trying to organise their breakfast for Tuesday.

    I was not feeling able to do anything so I forced myself to work on the first online lesson PowerPoin for Stephen. It is taking too forever to finish. I hope that the other sessions won't take this much time. The office was empty when I went to rest my bag to go to the washroom and then head back down to Blotky. Everyone was still trying to get their marks submitted and late-term absences for their form classes uploaded. We had a longer wait. I had to battle with some sleep.

    The Happiness Grocery near the flyover parking was blocked so we ended up going to the one above in Curepe. I came out with Miss and walked her to the doorway of the supermarket and then walked up to the bus route to meet Daddy. He was surprised when he saw me walk near him. I felt for Chinese that evening. My lunch handy was also hot so I took half a bottle of Coca-Cola. As soon as I had the computer turned on I took a call from Daddy that T&TEC was coming. And I sat and waited for them to come. They had a lot of steps before coming.

    When they came I told them that I would call Daddy and he spoke with the three men. I gave my phone to one of the gentlemen to hold while they spoke with Daddy. I also had to walk back up the steps and get the meter numbers. Thankfully we had the number printed on a receipt in case when they came. A wire was completely burned out. And they said that it could not be put in the meter until the box line was fixed. Auntie Vangie came for me while I began to do my piano composing in a complete blackout. She took me to the other side of the country that night. And I spent the rest of the day thereafter yesterday. It would be Eid in the morning.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(: am – : pm)