St. George’s College (Week #81) – Day #369

Date for Entry: (Monday 30 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 16 November 2024)

[T1, W:05 – WD:18, (Td:5)*].

**choos cupcake

Dear Diary,

    The morning the same gentleman next to me on the bus came out with me. When I got to the pavement, I realised I had come out too early in front of the NIB Building. I had to walk back to the start of 6^th Avenue and then get down to school. Entering the staffroom the air conditioning made me feel wet down. “Mel” asked how the weekend went. We laughed when I told her it was too short. She said that George’s colour was green and red when she saw me wearing the blue Mitchell house shirt.

    As I saw down “Choo Choo” gave me a cupcake wrapped in a beautiful floral napkin. I loved the quality of it too. She said that it was her birthday today. I decided to keep the napkin in my folder and keep it safe for the journal archives. “Mel” and “GG” laughed at me smelling the cupcake and the pies separately before eating them.

    Jess went down to the music room with the students. I went to see if Miss Celia was there to sign my timesheet. She said that Mr Charles was here, so he would sign it here. We spoke outside the staffroom’s kitchen entrance. The choir was sounding good on my way back. We got Kyle and another student to carry a tenor pan up to the hall.

    Jess and I had 1F. Not many students were ready for their presentations. A lot of the scores were low. Just before recess, she asked me to write out the fill-in-the-blank quiz for George’s college song. (This was a worksheet that I created last academic year for the students who are now in Form 2.)

    The children were taken to the Farrell Hall to carry their chairs there. Shiva came to ask the children to do so. As soon as I got back to the staffroom, Mr Charles was able to sign the timesheet form for me. He thought that the timesheet was for August because the number nine had looked like the number eight. He said that the school stamp would be in the office. I had a long wait there.

    Kiel and Isekel had a lot of forms to rewrite. Many of us were unsure about the working period since all of us were in our extension periods. I wrote down my first day of the contract to the end, and then inserted the end of the contract extension in brackets. They were stamped and Kiel left the copies in our files. The rain was heavy and the field along with the drains was clogged. It was nice to see Sameer Hoseiny again. He was speaking with Shiva before entering the staffroom.

    I sat outside by my nice old desk in the corridor. It would have been nice to get it back although it was too big to fit in the staffroom. I went to work on “This is My Flag” but anything I tried didn’t work. The laptop was sticking again. It looks like I will have to do this kind of work at home instead. I tried to remember the song in the maxi this morning. There was a rap song that sounded good to note and that it would be good for a steelpan arrangement. I didn’t bother sharing the arrangement “Beautiful” because of the poor laptop quality.

    Mr Charles told us that lunch would be extended to 1:30 PM. Donna was heard aloud while there was mention of children wasting the box lunches and messing each others’ faces with the cake from the anniversary function. I didn’t take any of it. Jess and I had class after 1:30. All of the teachers hurried off to roll call.

    When I got to 2F “Miss Thomas” and another girl were asking to sing Happy Birthday. It was “Mr Hunte’s” and “Mr Lalman’s” birthday today. I told Ravin happy birthday just before Jess and I had a long wait to get to 1F. They were split into their groups for a while until 2:40 and then the college song quiz was given. I saw a lot of the students cheating and sharing answers.

    That evening I had Fai’s and read from the first 5 characters on MeChat. I got 2 songs sent to Cathy and finished “This is My Flag” as I wanted to do in school. The bridge was too different to work on. I got some magic to work finally. Between Verses 1-2, and Verses 3-4 the bridge remained. The other two verses did not have the bridge. If the four bridges remained, the song would have become less interesting. The song was ready. At last, the end of the day came to an end at 11:30 PM.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:43 am – 3:14 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #80) – Day #368

Date for Entry: (Friday 27 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 29 November 2024)

[T1, W:04 – WD:17, (Td:4)*].

Dear Diary,

    Left home late today and still got to school on time. The first bust waiting is the one that I got in.* As soon as I got out of the bus I had a long walk to the traffic light. I saw Zipporah walking ahead of me and “Mr Bethelmy” was far ahead on Sixth Avenue and fast.

    I made it to the staffroom with “Hams”. The air conditioning above my head was really cold. Only when Miss Dayna came in she agreed with me that it did not make sense to have Religious Instructions in the first period of teaching time. They could have put that during the waste of time homeroom period session, which lasted for thirty minutes.

    Soon “Mr Marlon” came in. I remembered seeing him by the bus route waiting for a taxi. Miss “Celia” came to remind us of the end time of the homeroom period. Religious Instruction is in the first period and to remind the children to throw their box lunches away after use. Rats were starting to crawl into the classrooms.

    While sitting in the corridor, Mel invited me to the Religious Session she was conducting today. I stood outside 1L and listened. “GG” was doing her’s in 1M. I wasn’t sure who would have been in the hall. Maybe it was the Muslim students because they would need a lot of ground space. I knew I did smell incense and heard a bell ringing. Maybe that was the Hindus? Because the singing from that direction was beautiful.

    Miss session was the purpose, becoming a teacher, and the difference of God’s time and Study time in time management. Jess and I went to 2L where we corrected the homework on intervals in the grade 2 book. That was the period’s end. Not many of the students did the homework. We went to the music room and started working on the pan room cleaning since no Form 6s came.

    Three male students came to help us toward the end. I had the Channa pie that Jess bought me and it was really good. She had sent me to buy her something and something for me too. As I got back to the music room after recess, Kayla was being escorted to class by her friend. Jess had to leave and come back. She let us work on the Bhajan. “Gabby” was good. Kyla got some help from me and Joshua needed serious help that the time was not enough.

    We did the song twice and a third time when Jess came in. She did something on the drums yesterday and today. Luckily I got the song ‘Voice’ recorded today. Not many of them were ready for their solo pieces. Kyla got the introduction sorted and “Gabby” had a good grasp on his song called “Gabriel’s Song” although it was believed that he did for a concert already. I heard him play the first portion of “Swan Lake”. The score looked like it had to be doctored or he might need to pick another song.

    The two pieces were run through before the end of class along with a discussion on their historical eras of music. I ended up staying for her choir practice. Seth came to play tenor pan chords with me for the songs. “Vanna” played Guitar Pan. I went to the Form 4 class for Visual Arts after lunch in the hall. There was a serious observer like a fox there too. Wondered if he came to school to lime or waste the time. There were plans for Drawing the next Day 4. There was also homework for me to find out what is Mondrian.

    After school, we went for a ride to Port-of-Spain to MTC for a sweets box sale. It was nice to see Pastor Janelle again. Deon was there too. It was good to see Drum Kit Boy too. When we got downstairs, Mr Raymond drove away. We had to call several times for him to pick us back up. The time was 5:25 when I got home. Got out of my clothes and straight to the arranging.

    By 8 PM I got the chords for “Trini to the Bone” inserted. By 9 PM, the chords for “This is My Flag” were entered. I spent a full hour with the survival game and made good progress. The name of it was “The Walking Dead: Survival.” It was the same thing that I had played some years ago. Bedtime was surely 10 PM with the way I was feeling.*

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:51 am – 2:58 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #80) – Day #367

Date for Entry: (Thursday 26 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 29 November 2024)

[T1, W:04 – WD:16, (Td:3)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning, I finally made it to George's. In Curepe, I had to wait after four vehicles went. A nice bus with Brook Lidgertwood played “Broken Vessels” and another good one. I walked on the pavement alongside “Gabby” on the other side. I sat and ate breakfast while Mel looked at her form-class artwork. She said her phone needed space, and then she could try downloading the GPT notes that I suggested to get her letters typed out.

    I got working on yesterday's entries in the music room. Only Kaydon was there for the Upper 6 class. Jess and Kaydon spoke about the project and assigned him homework. I worked on the journal. Then we were about 8 minutes late for our class with 1F. The same was repeated with 1L yesterday, including forgetting to take a picture of the notes on the board. More time was spent on the college song once the steelpan arranging was played.

    Recess was quick to finish. The pitch labelling exercise would be done as Homework. Miss Rivas had announcements: (1) Tiling for classrooms, (2) Air conditions remaining on, and (3) Lunches under children's desks. Jess and I went to the music room after that note. The Form 4 students came late.

    We did some work on the students’ interview questions. I was used first as a pretend for Erphaan Alves. There were many jokes when I did not know who the person was or some of the songs. Joshua was asked to try practising the interview with Jess who pretended to be Nailah Blackman. We went to the Pan room to work on scales for a long. The two pieces were done after. Only at lunchtime before they left, Jess asked us to play the Presbyterian Bhajan.

    The choir members came and she asked me to write out the words “Rise Up,” “Count on Me”, and “Winner” on the whiteboard. The chords were there already. Not sure if the TTUTA meeting was going on in the staffroom. Aaron* played the piano and there was a nice one that he did separate from his regular repeats. It could have been one for graded exams.

    The staffroom was empty and children were lined up by their prefects. Jess came in and was speaking with Mrs Allen-Browne about the 1L boy who could not do much in music. Felt like going home early afterwards. I sat down hoping that the dark clouds would go away. I called Daddy and left after school.

    That night the chord finder did not want to work so I ended up doing the transcription for “Trini to De Bone.” Chord finder suggested three and I saw they lasted the entire song. I resaved the file to an arrangement file to try something different. I removed the weird-sounding bridge part in between each verse. I had the first two bars inserted for “This is My Flag” and am waiting to finish it tomorrow night. Not sure how the song will work with strummings. The same feeling came for “Trini To de Bone”.

    From 9:34 to 10:30, I worked on the Survival game. Still did not remember to look for the name of it. It was going to be bedtime soon the way my eyelids felt like it was swelling and there was a heavyweight. Mel and I didn’t get to download the app again. Maybe tomorrow we will have time hopefully.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:41 am – 3:10 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #80) – Day #366

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 25 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 29 November 2024)

[T1, W:04 – WD:16, (Td:2)*].

Dear Diary,

    Yesterday was our Republic Day holiday. Thankfully I got to school on time. Had to help Mel send a document to Power House right as I got in. Jess spoke with me while I was eating. Seems like she was leaving right after the Form 2 class this morning. She asked if I was alright being with the Form 4s and I said yes. “Mr Marlon” and “Hams” matched. I know “AJ” would be in green again.

    Last night the scales for “Yisu Ni Kaha” were shared with the students as PDFs in the Form 4 chat. I had just seen a message from Jess mentioning the funeral service. Right after finishing that sentence, Donna passed by and said, “Is early in de morning so, Sir does have something tuh write in dah book?” She then turned to Mr Raymond.

    I went out at 8:37 to hear Miss Carthy speak to 2F about “Gratitude is a must” which reminded me of Coffee. Jess and I had 2L and they had a lesson on scales and intervals lesson. The period felt forever, however, it was nice sitting with “Mr Danclare” in the back. I found out from “Mr Rampersad” that “Mr Khan” was discharged from the hospital for Dengue. I hope he will be better soon.

    The period was over and I met Gabriel’s Oboe on my desk. Jess left and the sky was getting darker. “Choo Choo” mentioned how she was in pain because of the weather. Daddy said rain would be in the evening but it finally came down. Recess went by in a rush.

    There was 1L to go after. I got there at 10:55. There was a lot of flooding in the corridor. I remember “Pablo” and “Mr Philips” were in an incident while Donna’s bigmouth was heard. Shiva was glad that the rain was louder than her voice. I went through the words of George’s anthem and then the group presentation work.

    The second period was used to teach pitches on the treble staff. I felt like that was the next lesson instead of the note values that Jess suggested. This lesson was taught on the spot, top of my head. I discussed the music alphabet afterwards. The class ran two minutes into lunch after correcting the questions in the grade one book.

    I ended up in pain somehow. Mel left early with Mr Rishi. I told her to say hello to him for me. Thankfully, lunchtime had enough time today.* I was going to go get some work done in the library but it was locked. I got the keys from the guard to the music room at roll call and headed down there. I took Gabriel’s oboe down with me which he had asked me to keep during class time with 2L this morning.

    The four students came while I was setting up the six basses. The pain in me hurt lighting the pans. The six-bass pans made too much noise being turned on the ground. I greeted the students and took them to the pan room. It was too hot for them so we took the tenor pans outside of the music on the corridors and did the practical class there.

    The scales done were the F, C, D, and Bb major scales with their arpeggios. There were a lot of mistakes and fixing up to do.  Miss Carthy was having her Physical Education class with 2F in the courtyard and Shiva was next door with upper schoolers. At first, I did not want to disturb his class but we continued anyway… lolz. My attention was on the students. They asked if we were reviewing the “Amazing Grace” and the “Ode to Joy” but I mentioned the new pieces. It took some time to decide on Guitar and 6 bass. It ended up with Kyla being on Tenor, Gabriel on Double Tenor, Joshua on Guitar, and Naiema on 6 Bass.

    I was very proud of them for getting through with the first three staves of the song. I played tenor pan with Kyla to help her with the melody. The school day was over. It took some time to turn off the air conditioning units and clean up the room. I went to return the music room keys first before going back to the staffroom.

    “Mr Peters”* was asking me if it was right for him to travel home in his PE clothing. I told him yes. Saw Mr Charles on the way up and gave a wave goodbye. Didn’t start helping 2F Niema with her scales and arpeggios. She had to work on her rollings on the tenor pan. I had the feeling as if she was accustomed to background steelpans. She was able to confirm that feeling for me when I asked.

    Had a short wait in Mario’s waiting. I got some of my journal entry writing there until I got home. I sent a WhatsApp message to the children and then got to work. There was a nice debate on YouTube that I looked at before getting to work. I got “Maria’s” markbook for this new academic year typed up with the names of the students and then had it emailed to her.

    Before I forgot to email “Celia” the Regularity and Punctuality Excel file again, I did so one time. There were some more hours before the ending time of work for the night. I went to finish transcribing the remainder of “This is My Flag”. There were about five small changes to make. The song was played twice to check the full notation done so far. Praise God the fourth verse was not so hard to do.

    By the time I went to try inserting the chords, the time was 9:11 PM. I decided to stop for the night. Was feeling very tired. Instead, I went to play a survival game with zombies. Seems as if they did a remake of the game. It was the same story being told in the game each step of the way. Play Store did not save my progress if it was the same app.

    I fell asleep by 10 PM. I am looking forward to seeing if they have the St George’s Day celebration. This was one of the announcements made by “Celia” during lunchtime. I was glad to complete Exodus Seven today.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:49 am – 3:05 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #80) – Day #365

Date for Entry: (Monday 23 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 29 November 2024)

[T1, W:04 – WD:15, (Td:1)*].

Dear Diary,

    Today made a full year of being at George’s. I had some challenges waking up but got up quickly to shower. I got ready and got into the car. I think there was a Georgian in the back of the bus. The traffic light was red for me to cross and go straight down Sixth Avenue. The music on the bus had no songs I would have liked to work on.

    Again, there was a small number of teachers in the staffroom. I had breakfast while Mel shared some of her career options that her form students aspired to and the subjects they might have needed.* I told her and Mr Raymond that today marked one year of working days at Georges.*

    Late into period one while doing Exodus One, “Celia” came into the staffroom. I was only there with five teachers. “Cleo” indicated that someone kept a bottle of urine and sprayed the lobby area with it. We soon heard that it was an adult and not a student. We were also told that a dead rat was lying in the same area.

    Mrs Allen-Brown said to Mrs Santana in the discussion that it was her birthday and that tomorrow I think was the Principal’s. Jess came and asked me if I was alright with her messaging for tomorrow. I saw we had four minutes to class and walked the long way to 3F because the urine was very high travelling in the air to the Form 2 classrooms.

    The class was done in class. The topics for today were dots, ties, and slurs, with time to do scales up to two flats and sharps. Jess asked me to create examples for the lesson. Miss Jones came and she listed the members of a production team. “Hodgie” was called to write the D Major scale and “Max” was called for the B Major scale. Aleah was called to write A harmonic minor using the formula that they were not introduced to.

    Miss Jones shared the situation on how she was ill-treated over the weekend.* Jess and I went back to the staffroom to hear more conversation about the urine this morning. Someone was eating fish. It smelled up the whole place. Miss Carthy was calling someone honey-lover and it made me laugh. I got Exodus Six completed in that space of time.

    I felt like there was nowhere to go. I had a good look at some of the previous Principals in the hall. Wondered what they were like. It's been a while since I spoke with a real Principal. Returning, there was a discussion of the change of the Coat of Arms, the Belgian King with hands and Hitler.

    There was a class for 2F right after lunch. I remember Miss Carthy singing “Watch how allyuh lookin’ like allyuh aye want to teach this evenin’” to me and Jess. We reviewed scales and did minor scales before going down to the music room. The place was very hot. We got some pans up on their stands. The dark clouds were approaching so I kept my umbrella in my hands. It came down as soon as I got to the car in Curepe.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:29 am – 3:08 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #79) – Day #364

Date for Entry: (Friday 20 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 10 October 2024)

[T1, W:03 – WD:14, (Td:6)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning was a super tough awakening. Daddy had to hit the window for a third time. I got ready from the shower and had to help him clean out the paintbrushes from earlier this week. “Punisher” called me last night to say that he was coming back to do a touch-up with the pain. So we packed up and left part of the gallery open for when he came.

    There was a mix of rap and chutney on the bus coming down. With too many bags in my hand, it was very difficult to record some samples of the song with my phone’s voice recorder. Some of the songs were good for steelpan. For the very least, they would have been fun to transcribe.

    The road was empty. Just before I crossed the road, I saw Jesse's mummy. I went to chat with her briefly. She liked how I grew my hair and said I almost looked like a Jew. We had a good laugh about that.

    I got to see some of the changes that “Celia” made in my attendance form. I ended up looking at it while she was holding it in his hand by his desk. As soon as he asked me why I was looking at it (in concern) I told him that was the form I had redesigned for the school record of student attendance. It was at that moment that he had learnt this logo that I put upon documents crafted, designed and manufactured by me. He also forgot how hard his hand was to continuously hurt me. I did not like any of it at all. There were nine counts of painful hits from him.

    I went back to my desk in pain. Sitting at my table, I had my morning breakfast with one pie. It was also Day Six today so "Miss Celia” and I had some free time in the morning. She had asked me to show her the Excel file and system for doing their teachers’ late and absence recording. The laptop needed charging. Sadly, she declined my request to share a viewing and the explanation with the other heads at the MMT this morning after recess. It did not bother me if I would have to do it again for some other person acting as the Vice Principal.

    Later that morning, Donald's voice was heard calling Miss Soodeen ‘Mini.’ At this time it was the end of the 30-minute homeroom. While looking around in the staff room, it did not look like there would be many teachers in attendance today.

    Yesterday before lunchtime, Jess said that she would be absent today. She wanted me to do some questions with 2F and correct their homework. I was still unsure what to do with the children. I saw Miss Gittens briefly as she went to her phone five class. I also want to give Mr Pierre a surprise, which was the homework he had given to 2L. He smiled and took it. Immediately Miss Celia came and called him out of the staffroom on an emergency.

    I went to the library and sorted the dictionary section. That was the last of the work that Miss Alexander needed help with. Once I was finished, I had left the library but forgot to take a picture of the work that I sorted. Recess time finished and I had to go and prepare for class with 2F.

    The classroom was humid. I ended up doing over the scales for F, G, D, C, and Bb Major. In my version of teaching this lesson, semitones were defined for the children for the first time. I also drew them a short chat on the side of the board: Semitone plus a semitone equals a Tone in three circles. I think the children seemed to understand this concept as soon as I drew it. This was confirmed to me when using the piano diagram that I drew for them.

    Because there was no order in terms of teaching these topics, the children were confused. I too was also confused in terms of where to lead them. If I had known this, I would have taught them from accidentals to scales, to key signatures, and then to intervals. They wish to hurry and do practicals was not a good move by Jess.

    Confusion also occurred for the children because they needed to know where square brackets had to be placed for the major scale. The children were not ready to complete their homework. I hope that the work I have put in was enough to help explain the homework for their next class with Jess. This reminded me of Roberts and her failure to review the questions and their structure before assigning them to the children last academic year.

    While the children were writing I went to the hall but the door to the stage was locked. That meant that I could not use a tenor pan to demonstrate the easier method of introducing the circle of fifths and fourths. Towards the end of the session, I had a nice discussion with “Pablo” about the accidentals on the whiteboard and he understood the work. He took a few tries of the homework and the rest was homework at the end of class.

    Some of the children didn’t know about numbering pitches ascending and descending, hence the issue with labelling semitones in the scale occurred. Brad and Ravin got help too along with Isabella. She said that she had fought a lot last night to try and make an attempt at the homework but now she understood after our few conversations on the work reviewed.

    The class was very engaged when I used Ravin, Talise and Abinna names versus their surnames as the analogy to help explain the harmonic equivalent names for the black keys of the keyboard. Ravin laughed in surprise and questioned how I knew his surname. The class ended and “Mr Hunte” shared his score for “Trinin to de Bone”. Unfortunately, it was an alto saxophone version that was created for accompaniment. I told him that I would try to score it out over the weened for him.

    After lunch, “Miss Celia” and Mrs Santana had both cancelled on me during the seventh period. “Maria” brought Gabby today also so I didn’t want to bother her for names to generate her digital markbook. School became very depressing that evening to the point I wanted to get up and leave. Another bus came seconds after I crossed onto the bus route. I had Fai’s tonight alongside some games before getting to work on the computer.

    I got the first minute to “This is my Flag” transcribed. Special thanks to “Vara” for going through her Form 2 notes to find me the names of the three cultural songs they had to. After 2 hours on the couch, I ended up falling asleep there. I could not have gotten up to make it to the bed until 8:40 the very next morning. There is “Trini to de Bone” which will take me the entire week to work on. I will have to work on notating both songs within this coming week.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:02 am – 3:25 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #79) – Day #363

Date for Entry: (Thursday 19 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 10 October 2024)

[T1, W:03 – WD:13, (Td:5)*].

**Picture of Excel file

Dear Diary,

    Got ready and left early this morning. A nice lady was driving the maxi. Mr Marlon was on the bus in front of me. The road of Sixth Avenue was empty so crossing the roads was not so scary. As I entered the compound, Mel was chatting with the guard. She asked joking at me, “Wuh yuh bring meh fuh breakfast?”

    We laughed and I went inside. She and I had breakfast with Mrs Greenaway. I shared some of my pringles with them. When they shared what they had, I said, “I had some Pringles, my pie, and I AM a little nuts.” They laughed.

    Somehow roll cam very soon. Miss Celia said that the basketball gate was still blocked by the debris of yesterday’s flooding. She mentioned teachers singing the wrong time in the attendance book and supervisors of the school being present observing it alongside the behaviour of some of the staff. Shiva spoke with me about his lack of red shirts. We were told about the red wearing to last until Friday.

    Throughout the day Donna was loud about having no double periods free in the evening for her to take bank time. We heard from Mr Pierre that George’s never had a band time policy. It was only at Valsayn that a bank time book for teachers was first introduced. She went on and on until Mr Pierre and Mr Charles came in.

    At the same time, "Nia" came in frightened that a big rat had run over her foot outside the kitchen door. A comment came where the teacher is supposed to have the knowledge and teach on the spot; not teaching from the textbook. I agree with this one.

    Thankfully it was time for period 3. Jess got caught in a conversation with Donna again while I was standing outside for a long. We had 1F for this first time because of the new timetable. Seees as Miss Roberts did rhythm instead of Treble Clef this time around. Very ‘interesting’ as she wanted me to do pitches and staff first.

    The introductions were done first and then we got into reciting the words of the George’s college song. She did the numbers challenge with the children using three different beats of different genres, while I went to meet Mr Marcelle out in the ‘lobby’ area and take him down to the music room. We were going to have a panorama meeting, which went a little into the fifth period.

    Finally, after three weeks, I had accomplished Exodus Chapter 4. I felt as if I was being held back from doing my readings. GG was asked to do a prayer at lunchtime when the teacher assembled in the staffroom. She was ashamed at first and then everyone left the compound for the second day of protest.

    I did not leave today. Only nine teachers remained in the staffroom. I saw Miss James briefly in her green t-shirt. “Mr Hunte” was asking to open the music room and supervise them but Jess was doing lunch. I didn’t go either. The day began to progress into class time with 1L that evening. It was depressing that many of them were not interested in music but that was expected by me. I was looking to see if there were students interested in sports and sciences.

    I left school after 3. Went home to work on the Excel file for “Miss Celia.” I ended up from 4 to 9:35 in the night working on it. Finally, an annual summary was inserted into the same Excel file. The formula for addition in single cells of multiple workbooks was discovered for the annual summary.

    The hour of completion and checking over did not grant me the time to test-check the annual summary page and the formula inserted. However, I am hopeful that it will work and make life easier for whichever acting Vice Principal or Appointed Vice Principal. I did not last long afterwards. I went to bed before 10:30 to bed.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:42 am – 3:06 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #79) – Day #362

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 18 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 10 October 2024)

[T1, W:03 – WD:12, (Td:4)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning I got up late to the toilet twice. The pepper from the Churches yesterday did a wonderful job well done. Seeing that I had some time on my hands, I got to shave before 6 and got ready. I was not sure if the red shirt I had would even fit me to work today. It would have been a causal day in school for that matter. When I met Mel, we went to the office to see if we could sign. Her teacher’s log was available. Seems as if they did not find the OJT logbook as yet.

    She was afraid to go back in the art room but thankfully the rain did not go the room. We spoke about Panorama on returning to the staffroom. She also found out that I had the Panorama experience there three times already. I had a lot to write about before getting to this morning's entry. Had to get to class too. The phone alarm went off at 8:40 for me to walk and find Jess. She and Carthy were still taking roll.

    We had a while to begin class with 2L. I was asked to write a brief note on Major scales. When I asked if it was good she said that it was plenty. As she continued to explain, I was sent to turn on the air condition units in the pan room by that time. They did not go past 16 on the remote and not much cool was coming. Probably they took a while to set up.

    I was met by ‘Jason’ and ‘EB’ after washing my hands and joking with them when I asked if they had skipped class. “Jason” said that ‘EB’ wanted to sing a song for me. He was ashamed and forgot the song. They mentioned it was called “Not Lethal.” It was not one that I knew. Hopefully, it will be easy to find on YouTube. The short piece of the same song “EB” played for me over a cell phone sounded like rap.

    I spent some time playing the “Black Rain” that I had transcribed and played for ‘Kelvin’ and his friends last term over my laptop. Because I did not have the right pair of pansticks with me made the song harder to sound on the tenor pan. I could see that ‘Jason’ was very excited to see how the rap for “Black Rain” was scored especially when Kman would have sung a curse word in it. They both left at the start of the third period for this class.

    Soon after, Jess had some 2L boys being in a larger bookshelf in the music classroom. Was it stolen from the library? Or was it the property of Valsayn that came down like the brown tables? I stayed there getting yesterday’s entry completed while Jess sat with Kayden and reviewed the SBA.

    There was also a Lower 6 orientation going on at the same time. Toward recess, we heard Ministry speaking news about the school and more concerning things. I remember while writing earlier, Donna came and said, “WHAT! We matchin’ today, sir.” She began to speak in the recess period in the staffroom and it felt as if there was a meeting.

    We heard ‘Miss Celia’ and ‘Mr Marlon’ reminding the teachers that the time was 11:05 and to get to class. Jess and I walked down to the music room and met the Form 4s waiting outside of the paved corridor. They ended up doing practicals for the session. Two pieces from the chat were done.

    The first piece was “Amazing Grace” transcribed by Dr Remy and “Ode to Joy” from an old NCSE 2018 booklet. We both took turns once the children did each piece and were done at the got. Getting back to the staffroom, Mel was hurrying us to get out of the compound since everyone was leaving. Children looked out from inside of the hall and news reporters from CNC3 were out by the road.

    I took a ride with Mr Raymond and we went to Miguel Moses with ‘Mel’ and ‘GG.’ It was nice in there. I was surprised to see the gigantic shelves with different varieties of colours and sizes. As soon as we were about to leave, a gentleman who just come in had mistaken ‘GG’ and me for workers in the store. The three of us had a good laugh coming out of the store. We bumped into Mrs Santana and Mrs Libert who were now entering. We went to Extra Foods on the highway. “GG” tried Darren’s doubles for the first time and she saw one of the workers was a Georgian too.

    It was close to 1 PM and we had to rush back for roll call. I asked sir to stop too early and had a super long walk to get onto Sixth Avenue. Not sure if on Seventh Avenue the bus route had an access point like in front of the NIB building. By the time I got on the bus, I was soaking wet. Daddy had his lung test that day and the results kept him back.

    On our way home, we saw the dark clouds approaching. The Venz-boy Nic Punisher was painting our gallery burglar-proofing from the outside. He had to pause for a long time because of the rain. His coworkers came in the evening and helped him out. They began speaking about others it was nice. They ended up leaving some things out for the night. I will have to fix it this weekend. At 6:00 Mr Greene’s wife was chatting nice with them. The gate was done last.

    Towards 6:45 I took my my brush and started painting with them. It looked like they had forgotten to do the bottom of the railings. It helped to speed things up and they were leaving minutes after half seven in the night. I got the whole gallery mopped down and threw the water over the railings by the drain side. It was already ten minutes to nine so I didn’t get any transcriptions for “Jireh” done again.

    That night I tried the Kik app again. It was so lonely and now saying that I have to pay for chats. Didn’t remember that being so the last time I visited it. While Punisher was painting, I tried out Telegram and it was just like WhatsApp. It was nice of Steven to chat for some time and he helped explain some of those apps and how they work but he was able to confirm that not many of them are so nice. I got rid of both apps that night. I guess you can assume how the reviews were, lol.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:35 am – 3:01 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #79) – Day #361

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 17 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 10 October 2024)

[T1, W:03 – WD:11, (Td:3)*].

Dear Diary,

    As soon as Daddy hit the window I got out of bed. It took me a while to prepare but we left the house at 7:05. On the stop at WASA, a Georgian girl came in the bus. It was Sadie sitting next to me. I got my umbrella out and took shade the whole walk down. The roads were very clear. The Form 4 Joshua passed me with no manners at all.

    I had two pies this morning and had the leftover water from yesterday. The air conditioning had cooled it down for me by the time I had gotten to school. Was greeted by “Choo choo” and Shiva on my way up to my desk. I had breakfast out of the way first as always and went to work on the journal entries. Shiva was consulting with me about the heat and mentioned that he would have liked to retire up in Valsayn instead of down in George’s.

    Soon Miss Dayna came and mentioned getting the “Another Day in Paradise” arrangement and seemed to like it. She did confirm receiving the “Amazed” arrangement which was completed in the summer. I believe I had asked Miss Soodeen to send that one. There was no sign of Jess anywhere around today. We had Lower 6 that time after homeroom. Not sure if she will come by for the Upper 6 class.

    I went up to the library instead and helped out the NALIS ladies with sorting the referenced and reserved books. It did not take much time to do at all. About seven ladies were sorting the reserved books and shelving them while a nice lady and I worked on the reference sections. There were boxes of things to throw out and things not belonging to the library were sent there too. Somehow a lot of noise started from the other ladies in the back when Miss Alexander asked for help.

    I left the library at half ten to go back to the staffroom. I thought I had a class but it was not so. Instead, I took the time to create space on my phone. I made some progress on it. Later before lunch, I saw Jess come in the staffroom. I was hoping that they would fix the timetable better and sooner. While I sat doing my Bible reading for Exodus Chapter 4, I gave a loud hiccup. It reminded me of earlier this morning when the room was empty, Dr Jogie turned around looking concerned at me.

    We had a meeting with Mr Curtis Marcelle who would be the arranger for the St George’s experience of Panorama 2025. At 12:30 a TTUTA meeting began:

• Issues of the school: No ventilation, Science Labs under lockdown, no fans in classrooms, no PA System, no Bell, no Wifi, no Phone, etc.
• Ministry deadline missed. Everyone is to wear red tomorrow and exit the compound at lunchtime 12:10. Return to the compound at 1:10. (50 minutes of no teachers on the compound)
• Rejection of the Cultural Transformation method mandated by the Ministry of Education. No consultation was done with teachers.
• Stabbing incident: A form 1 Student was stabbed by glass on the school compound received 6 stitches and was diabetic. The school remains accountable during school hours. Health and safety hazards remain on the compound.

 

    End of Meeting. As soon as the betting began thunder sounded. There was a big shower that came down. I only had one red shirt. I will have to see if there are any red T-shirts at home. Mr Pierre said there will be a short timetable meeting at some point during lunch. For this meeting, the teachers were kept back in the staffroom and were not sent to take rool as yet.

    At 1:14 the timetable meeting began. There was a voting on the new timetable for tomorrow: Tomorrow being either a Day 1 or a Day 4 which was next from today. Plenty of the teachers were undecided. The poll was done a third time and declared by majority that tomorrow would be Day 4 according to the new timetable. Jess and I will have classes in the morning. A lot of us were panicking before the meeting for the bright lighting.

    As were dismissed to class roll, teachers began to mention two corridors, one on both sides of the school being flooded out with rainwater. I got a call from Daddy to let me know that Aunty Vangy would be coming to pick me up. The corridor to the Form 2 area was filled with water. I felt the touch of it around my shoes. Thank God I had the blue on today. I ended up leaving Jess in the classroom and went back to the staffroom. I still remember Mr Pierre climbing on the chairs and bench to cross the large pool. We didn’t get to see Mr Charles today.

    I got my things out of Aunty’s car and then went up the road. There was a lot of traffic on the highway and roads were disappearing, including the entire carpark of the Courts Megastore. She offered me to go to Flow but I had no ID card on me. Instead, we went to get Aunty Ruth and Salina for them to collect something. They met us in the grocery and then we went to Churches afterwards. My belly felt stuffed.

    I got home by 5:30 to bathe and get to work. Sadly time went and I didn’t even get more than two minutes in “Jireh” completed. I had a lot of frustration with the app called Discord. Last night the codes they sent me did not work somehow. I spent a whole day making space to download it on the phone. The login too didn’t accept my numbers. I ended up removing it from the phone.

    The next app was Snapchat and thankfully it saved my information by Google but it was lonelier than Whisper. The next to try would be Telegram and see what that was like but tomorrow. It took me two hours waiting on the internet and trying to get in. I’m glad I didn’t try these things before, lol.

 

LINK(S):

Flooding Video.**

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:42 am – 3:30 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #79) – Day #360

Date for Entry: (Monday 16 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 10 October 2024)

[T1, W:03 – WD:10, (Td:2)*].

**pic of fudge

Dear Diary,

    This morning I had a challenge to fall asleep and then wake up. The getting up part of the morning and getting ready was fast. Only in the car, did I realise I did not have my cellphone with me. I knew that something was feeling different. I had to put the Terramycin on my eyelids. They were swollen by the time I got up.

    The roads were surprisingly empty. Even walking down Sixth Avenue, the way to George’s was empty. I saw many Form 1 and 2 children coming in as I was always on the pavement. I had taught all of them in the previous academic year. 

    Still, not many teachers were there on my way to the staffroom. I went to get breakfast out of the way first. Jess walked in quickly. Instead of waiting and not knowing the time, I went to sit on a bench outside of her 2F form class. The children were having their breakfast during homeroom time until 8:40. We got the 2F to come down and help put the pan stands up but a lot of the double pan stands were not found and a lot of them were also mismatched.

    By the start of the second period, they had to return to class. Miss Carthy was not there when I got back to the staffroom. I went outside with the Form 4s and took over the ‘pule keeping’ for Jess as she picked them up with their scales. The heat was a lot. The students seriously needed a lot more study with their scales. I recalled playing the D Major scale for two octaves on Naimea’s tenor pan. I thought it made her play out the rest of the scales without error and fast. We laughed about that.

    Jess told me that we had no class until after lunch. I gave her the list of issues in the music room since I didn’t have my phone to take a picture of it. I went to use the washroom and then “Choo Choo” reminded everyone about the fudge sale.

    I went to the library. Miss Alexander was standing by a shelf putting up the books and a lady was sitting by her side and handing the books to her. She said that she began with the 910s and the 920s. I was allowed to sort the 930s and the 940s by the time. I also got to sort the 940s by the time. 950s and 960s were sorted on a shelf by the time and then handed over to Miss.

    I learned at some point that the lady was Miss Alexander’s mother. Several times or mostly throughout recess and lunchtime, “Vanna’s” big mouth was heard. I did not like her heavy use of obscene language at all and her uncontrolled hyperactive behaviour. I got back to the staffroom finally at 1:07 and that flew away like 10 seconds.

    During our class with the Form 2s, Jess asked me to go and check out the air conditioning unit in the music room with two remotes. One was from the music room and the other was from Miss Gittens. Only one remote turned on the two in the pan room. I was not sure if the units were cooling or just turning on slowly. The one Miss Gittens gave us was not turning on the other two in the classroom. She got back her remote before returning to the 2L classroom.

    She was correcting the last two questions from their exam paper. Seems as if no one was studying at all. I wondered how many of them still had the Mr. Ali Textbook that he went and painfully made for them. I sat on the same bench this morning. There was a light breeze there. Once this was done we were taken to the music room for the students to help clean and pack around. She tried the remote but the units did not turn on.

    As soon as Mr Raymond was ready to go that evening, we all got in the car. Daddy called back on Miss’ phone and he couldn’t hear properly. Maybe the rain was causing a poor signal. I told him that I was getting a ride home. We went to USC that evening for a ride. The place was beautiful and the cloudy sky made us all in the car fall asleep when ‘GG’ left to come back.

    I had been fighting this sleep since the middle of the 7^th period. By the time we passed the Gate office by Gordon Street, the rain came down. I got soaked running across the road with the umbrella in my hands. It had to remain close to get in the pedestrian gate. While getting to my gate, Aunty Vangy was outside parked up. She had brought some cake from the party they had for Aunty Ruth's birthday yesterday. It was nice to see her again.

    I had planned to do my journal archival work that evening. Sadly, I didn’t have the right materials to do it. I was led back to Musescore right away. Instead of working on “Take a Bow”, I worked on transcribing “Jireh”. The full YouTube video was 9 minutes and 40 seconds in duration. I will do two minutes an evening to get it completed. The rhythmic patterns seemed to be quite tricky and difficult to interpret.

    Not many lead sheets were available online. There was a piano and vocal arrangement of the song that provided a preview of two pages and then to purchase. I still liked what I used. Only the first minute and 21 seconds were scored. Hopefully tomorrow I can return home early and then continue working on the rest.

    Whisper was empty as usual. I had Stingray Spa music on and the experience was better. Praise God I fell asleep on time. I appreciated the nice chat with ‘Jan’ sitting outside of 2L on the beach. We spoke about the difference between being back at Barataria and being up at Valsayn. I did mention the Form 6s being a part of our timetable no. I love teaching the older students but the business part of their music ‘SBA’ was messed up in a way. I shared how excited I was for the Form 4s part since that would finally mark the beginning of my OJT training.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:49 am – 3:25 pm)

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

Date for Entry: (Thursday 12 September 2024)

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

[T1, W:02 – WD:09, (Td:1)*].

Dear Diary,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(9:30 am – 3:11 pm)

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

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 11 September 2024)

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

[T1, W:02 – WD:08, (Td:6)*].

Dear Diary,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

LINK(S):

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

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:46 am – 3:30 pm)