The literature of this "portfolio" is a combination of music journal entries and DAPHA Projects journals done by Daryl Ali.
It is a digital account of his life experiences, works of many and accomplishments.
Showing posts with label DAPHA Projects 2022. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DAPHA Projects 2022. Show all posts
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
10th December 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Today
was the students’ final day for their class parties and report sheets. I
personally found it was better for report books to avoid the printing and
last-minute everything that usually occurs. It did happen that way too and the
office was crowded with teachers waiting for reports to be printed on
legal-sized sheets. I could recall there was one of the students that did not
get a music grade and Miss Roberts had to go and insert it.
I
had on my red shirt and long black pants on that day. I did not dress up like
some of the other students and teachers. My entire morning was spent in a
classroom working on the teachers’ attendance sheets, and subject registers, and creating a new temporary mark sheet for plenty of coursework. Those
mark sheets were literally labelled “plenty coursework” on the top.
The
Teachers’ Attendance Sheet would enable the Vice Principal to take attendance
for an entire month as opposed to a single week. The subject register was a
complete remake of the outdated sheet they had. I heard some of the teachers
comment on their dissatisfaction with the sheet. The plenty coursework mark
sheet was made to accommodate marks for fifteen assignments. I had plans to
make an excel version but it is still difficult to lay out the entire document
on legal-sized paper.
From
lunchtime to the end of school, I was in Form 1 Leacock with Miss Gittens’ form
class. She had invited me to lunch with the class. I had to carry a chair from
one of the classrooms to theirs. Lunch was lovely. They had a gift exchange and
I remembered getting the Christmas card the students signed and gave to me. I
stayed back, helped Mr Bains pack up his Christmas tree to carry home, and sent the remainder of the cake to security by the road.
I
packed up my bag and went to wait for the bus shuttle. The pictures of the
subject registers from Miss Gittens were too small to read and enter in my
excel forms.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
10th December 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Today
I was in the art room working hard on the banner for Miss Gittens’ walk
tomorrow. I showed her the words that I did and as I got to the table to work
on it, I saw that someone had thickened up the word “army” that I did and
someone else tried the first layer of white on the word “the”. By the time
lunchtime was completed, all the words were covered in white. We had some
students working on their neatness of them.
They
had a talent show during lunchtime and it took some of the students a while to
get back to class. I stayed with them for some time to do the exam. I also took
up the papers twenty minutes earlier before school started. I could tell that
they did not study their work. I went back to the art room to work as much as I
could to get the oil to vie drawn over and base it in white. There were two
intersecting swords to the top right that were not even one. I felt like I might
have spoiled them.
The
Saturday came and it was only me going down to Barataria to meet Miss Gittens.
Everyone else had cancelled last minute. Daddy got a car to carry me to meet
her. It took a very long time for the car to also get us. I had the opportunity
to read a sermon that she wrote and another essay. I knew that by the time I
worked on it the driver would come and so it occurred.
The
walk had already finished by the time we got to Independence Square. We spent
seven hours on our feet. The rain came down on us three times but did not stop
anything. I was given a reading and something else that a lady predicted. My
one out of many was a bit special. She opened up the entire gathering like God
had opened up the ocean for the Israelites to cross the sea and she said, “Come…
Slowly!” It was very scary for me. I met Daddy and Andrew in Curepe that night.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
10th December 2022)
Dear
Diary,
At
my entrance to the gate, it was nice to see one of the security that greeted me
but their supervisor wanted me to be rough. I just let her yell to finish it
out. I could now understand how the parent earlier this week felt when he
complained about the security yelling at him and it had to be her. The only
issue in her comments was that some of us were taking the bus and not
reporting. I felt THAT she decided to pick on me because I was the only OJT
that did not sign out that day on the bus.
It
was Day 5 in school today. I spent the whole morning and lunchtime in the art
room. I saw that Miss Gittens had gotten a piece of red fabric and she drew the
outline of a shield to her church’s logo on it. A lot of o time was spent on
making the white in the shield thick and full. Someone else and Miss worked on
the white and yellow for the flame.
Not
many of the students wanted to help. Before lunchtime ended, I took a white
colour pencil and draw out the words and was only able to colour the word
“army” in white paint. I saw that the students drawing below did not look at
the mathematical aspect. We had to leave out a gold line in the shield. The
vile with oil I saw also needed doing over because of the shape and the
mathematical positioning.
In
the evening, I had the in-class written exam with Form 1L. They were quiet during
the exam. I could not believe the children when they said they were not ready
after all of the preparation.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
10th December 2022)
Dear
Diary,
I
came to the campus early. I did not play the national anthem but I was still
there. Miss Roberts met me at my desk to collect some of her assignments that
were submitted there yesterday. A lot of them were incomplete. I had been to
the class a bit late because their homeroom time usually goes late into the
first period.
I
did not have it in mind to do the exam today but because the students were
asking about it and there were enough to do it, I continued. I decided to sit
in the back of the class for this exam to look at the students that liked to
talk during the exam like last Friday. This one was smoother than the English
exam and did not take much time for the students to complete.
A
nice tactic I tried was to ask the students to check over five times and to
“draw me something nice” in the empty parts of the exam paper. This helped the
students in waiting for fewer students to complete the exam. We only had two
minutes before the end of the second period and I took up the papers first. I
then took up their Grade 1 booklets.
I
took the full hour and ten minutes of periods three and four to correct all the
exam sheets and insert the total points into my ‘temporary mark sheet’. Only at
lunchtime, I corrected the students’ Grade 1 books. Many of them did not do
their homework and I had a lot of writing to do on square sheets of paper. Some
time into the seventh period, I returned the books to their class.
Miss
Roberts had called me and asked to supervise seven students doing an exam they
missed. We started late into the seventh period. I waited until the 2:30 bell
for school to dismiss. It was only after school I correct the seven exam papers
while waiting for the bus shuttle to come. There was enough time to do them and
I left them back at school.
Today
the timesheet was due. I had handed it in somewhere after recess to Isekel. I
just hope that they make copies of them. We still had the staff meeting at periods
four and five that went twenty minutes into lunchtime. I had my small copybook
taking notes from the safety officer and his notes about the safety drill that
should be coming any time before school closes.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
10th December 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Yesterday
was no school because of the flooding and the closure of schools. I was able to
complete the transcription of the rap song “Nah Change Up” for Miss Harris. It
was a very challenging piece to do because of the rap and also because of the
last-minute request. I still did not trust it to the moment when she asked me
and the less rush in the corridor today. She wanted me to write in the letter
as if it was too much to ask Miss Roberts.
This
morning’s transportation was another story because there were only two maxis
there and no taxis. Both of the maxis were stopping at the roundabout and going
down onto the highway. I decided to take the maxi and walk in because it seemed
to be the only way to get to school. I had a long way to go and the sun was very
hot for the morning. All day the sun was hotter than usual.
The
attendance for the Form 1 Leacock was too little for the exam today. I did not
want to do it with a short number. Instead, I had the students open their Grade
1 book and I questioned them on topics they had homework on. A lot of the
questions were others from outside of the book. I also had a lot of students
participating in writing answers on the board. Some of them love to draw the
staff.
Ten
out of seventeen students submitted books and they were returned during
lunchtime. Their class was empty somehow when I got there. The same review was
done with Form 1 Farrell but I had forgotten to take up their workbooks. I did
not even feel ill towards the end of lunch I only went to 1 Farrell during the
last ten minutes of the seventh period.
There
were no exams needed for Miss Roberts’ Form 3 class because of the small number
of participants. They were told that it would be held tomorrow at 12:20 during
lunchtime. I appreciated the assembly this morning when I got to ask Miss Chote
to play the national anthem on the tenor pan. I made one short mistake in the
playing after playing it in Hillview. I had thirty copies of my attendance
receipt forms in legal sheets. I had cut the sheets in halves. Thirty of them
were for me and the other thirty I had put in the born cabinet for other
teachers to use.
On
my way home, the highway had too much traffic as if some major accident took
place. The bus driver took the main road up and tried to come out by WASA in
Mount Hope but had to turn back. He ended up taking the back roads and allowed
some of us to exit opposite Yang’s Wuk. I had to cross the bus route and the
main road. I walked up to the back road in line with Vashti and walked down to
McLeod Street. It was only at 4:45 that daddy met me at the junction.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
10th December 2022)
Dear
Diary,
I
had a panic when Miss Roberts told me in her call coming to school that the
previous principal Mr Sammy told her that the music had errors. I had already
made printouts f all the scores into a booklet for different sections of the
school. I did not want to have to make over music because of the work done
already and the cost put out to make them.
We
met in the corridor and she showed me what was sent to her and she did not
remember to tell me until that morning. I felt better than the entire singing
from Mr Sammy was exactly what I had in the updated version of the booklets. I
had shown Miss Roberts the books and she liked them. She said that it would be
something the steelpan students should have for the rehearsals.
At
the end of the conversation of many things, I ended up leaving the bag of
booklets there on my desk. I was disappointed because I was finally hoping to
go and drop the booklets into the library so that the school could finally for
once own music notation to their school song.
The
school was closed early because of the heavy rain at lunchtime but the sun came
out in full right after. I saw Miss Philips sitting with Miss Roberts in the
lobby area and I handed her the teacher’s log with amendments. She seemed happy
about it.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
10th December 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Today
Miss Roberts did not come to school because she had to attend the SanFest
competition with the students and participating students. There was no assembly
in the hall because of the flooding down by the cafeteria side of the campus. I
waited a while and went over to get the security to open the music room.
Walking back to the office the rain came down on me and I had to run. It was
amazing how I got there to school at the same time as yesterday. The road was
very clear as if it was before six in the morning.
The
Form Five Music students were already in the music room by the time I got there
with my books. I had a photocopy of the piece “Air” and a compilation book with
“Invention Number Two.” Both students were using the tenor pan. The student
doing “Air” did not have much work to do except for working on her timing and
being able to get accustomed to the tempo (sixty crotchet beats per minute).
The
next piece was only six spots more in tempo. This second student needed a bit
more assistance when I saw that some pitches were not correct. She had only one
more bar to complete section B of the piece. The only homework I gave them was downloading
a metronome app on their phones and setting it to the correct meter and tempo.
That was the end of the class. I found that it went by too quickly.
I
later spent more time in Miss Gittens’ art room working on colouring the pillow
casing design. Only at the end of lunch, I had the students lock up the music
room and I went over to get my tray with books for class with Form 1L.
This
particular class was noisy but it was easier when I had everyone writing out
the review answers on the whiteboard. All seven topics were reviewed and there
was one student to snapshot the summary notes for their class group. I took the
shuttle back to Curepe from George’s that evening.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
10th December 2022)
Dear
Diary,
The
morning sky was dark as night. I did not get to the UTT site until 7:15 while
sheltering on the main road and having my pants lightly went from cars dashing
water on me and the others. I did not make a run for it with the umbrella as
many did. I knew the strength of the rain was not good to personally make it.
I
met Miss Phillips again this morning. I showed her the teacher’s log that I
made. Her only issue was that she preferred the session boxes to be left to
right instead of a vertical setting. She still took it. I made the change later
that night to see what she might say the next day.
I
had my only class for the first two periods of the day. Unfortunately, the form
teacher took up my entire first period. They were talking about food, so I went back to the office,
had breakfast, and returned to the class door with my tray of books in my hand.
I opened the door for the teacher to know I was there.
I
went in and took out my marker to write out everything. Then I went to get the
grand staff chart for the form ones. I got a student to take a picture for
their class group. The same was done for the grand staff chart after the
discussion. I went back to the office and wrote out some questions I wanted to
do as a review with the class for tomorrow. It would be their last before the
exam next week Monday and Tuesday.
As
soon as lunchtime came, I was on my way up to the visual arts room. Miss
Gittens and I spoke for some time as I applied the white fabric paint that she
gave me. I was able to complete that aspect of the ‘primer’ work. I was also
allowed to put some white acrylic paint onto the ‘primer’ layer. I have the
second half of the pillow casing to cover before adding the colour.
I
supervised Miss Roberts’ Form 2L class exam during the last two periods. The
exam was supposed to last during the first period and about fifteen minutes
before the last one. I only gave them all of the seventh period and at the
start of the eighth period, I collected the papers.
I
had to give them their next assignment that was due on Monday. I wrote out the
requirements but sadly their whiteboard destroyed my markers in the process. I
told them in short what they had to do and, who and where to submit the
assignment. They had fifteen minutes before school would close. I took the
papers to the office and began correcting them for Miss Roberts. I had six more
to do when I got home. I just have to do her attendance for the class in her
subject register.
I
took the last bus shuttle with Isekel today to go back down to George’s. We had
a good laugh about almost falling asleep on the way to school when the ride was
about to end. Somehow the ride down to George’s get the three of us tired on
the bus. I’m just glad that the rain did not wet us down again like in the
morning. Nice cool weather to walk in.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday 19th November 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Today
I woke at 4:30 again and I got ready. I could make it to the UTT site at 7:07. I left my pencil case at home and did not feel comfy for the whole day. It
was early and I was in the outer part of the office alone I saw Miss Gittens
coming into the office to sign her attendance after I did. I could smell the
religious Hindi incense that Doctor would light when she is in her office. I
only saw her some minutes going to assembly when Miss Roberts called me on her
way down to the car.
Miss
Roberts asked me if I was interested in going to the SanFest competitions with
the students on Tuesday. I told her later that day that I would prefer to stay back
in school because of my class in the evening and that “I could also go and see
about some of her classes which she is out on that adventure.”
The
assembly went by sometime this morning. Dr Sookdeo told me that I was welcome
to join them in the hall. I did just that because I enjoyed being out there
listening to the things that the students had to say. The national anthem was
played by a girl from one of my Form One classes on a tenor pan. They ended up
keeping the instrument in the hall. It was better for carrying it back and
forth.
The
assembly ended up finishing an entire ten minutes into the first period. I was
late but I knew that the lesson to teach would have been very short. I had Form
One Leacock and the class was completed with twenty minutes to complete the
second period. I reviewed the pitches on the treble staff and then introduced
the Bass clef. The discussion was on the Grand staff and Middle C. The grand
staff chart was used. The same was done in the evening class. Both classes were
nightmares.
A
while before lunchtime I was in the library typing out a teacher’s class log. I
did not have my flash drives, so I had to do something new from scratch.
Miss Phillips gave me one that Miss Patel made and I transformed it into a
longer one that caters for twenty classes in a term. I hope that Miss Phillips
appreciates this and makes it easier for her to do her class logs. I did not
finish this form until I got home. Suddenly I began to feel too sleepy. I went
back to my desk in the administrative office and fell asleep for the rest of periods
four and five.
I
awoke nine minutes into lunchtime. I got up and went to the visual arts room
with the Form One book that I made to go visit Miss Gittens. We had a while to
wait because a cleaner came to see about the room. Miss Gittens gave me a pillowcase
to draw designs on; sometime before I left, she helped me put a whole liquid
within the shapes I drew. She said that the liquid helps to keep the wet fabric
paint. There was already some plastic placed on the inside of the pillow casing.
I
had forgotten to take it home with me to work on it. I even stood out in the
wet rain to get a taxi. I did not use the bus shuttle because daddy and I had
to go to the bank, Charan’s, the barber, and Payless before all of them closed
for the evening. The bank and Charan’s were a compromise. We got the shoes and
went home.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday 19th November 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Today
I left my orange pocket diary at home. I had to wait until I got it to safeguard
my time arriving at UTT and the time that I left. There was a crazy staff
meeting that went on. I do not think it was productive. It was abruptly concluded
and teachers were still left on the spot.
I
sometimes find that teachers should agree on a day of the week and pick a topic
for that meeting to try and find a strategy or some kind of workable solution
to the issues around. A fourth and fifth period is not enough time for some of
those teachers to speak. It might be way too long for some of the teachers who
may have given up. There was an argument in response to something by the time
that Dr Sookdeo left and many others. We spoke about the submission of reports
online versus printed reports, the new acting Vice Principal, the VAPA concert
and other things.
During
lunchtime in the visual arts room, Miss Gittens had completed the Bristol board
piano project. She had one and I had my one for next term with the Form One students.
We had both worked on her music theory homework by the time and spoke about the
meeting during the fourth and fifth periods. I had to ask her about submitting
the marks and entering marks on the temporary marks sheet I had made.
During
lunchtime, I could not go out to meet dad in Curepe again because of the heavy
rain. Even the library was beginning to fill up with water because of the leaks
in the roof. I called daddy around twelve and he told me that I should just
write him a letter to collect the letter from the office in Tunapuna. We also celebrated
the secretary’s birthday and some of them were a bit too cold for ice cream
though I had two cups and enjoyed them.
Before
the day was over, Miss Roberts had to go back to George’s to get some more
steelpan instruments. She asked me to correct her Form 2M worksheets and I finished
the last set at my table in the gallery at night. I had fun doing them but it
was too depressing because the students could not complete them and did not
know the work. She told me that those were the form two students that did not
have music with Miss Paul for all of their time in Form One. I used the bus
shuttle again in the evening to go down to George’s with Kiel and Isekel.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday 19th November 2022)
Dear
Diary,
I
fell asleep on the couch again this week. The phone woke me at 4:30 in the
morning before sunrise. I took the time to go on the computer and fix up St.
George’s college song to be printed. I wanted the booklet to be printed, bound,
submitted and over with. I completed all the steelpan parts and then sent them
off to Isa by email along with a cover page that took me six minutes to
complete. I got my logo into it and tried to make it as good as I could.
Going
down in the Maxi I felt that I would have reached late. The road was even piled
up with traffic at the road merger. When it was time to sign in at the guard
booth, I was shown 7:51 was my time of getting onto the site. I did not have
much to do today since it was Day six. I did not see Miss Roberts today.
When
it was getting to period four, I went to the library with some of the OJTs for
the ‘staff’ meeting. A lot of quarrelling went on. We had a lot of conflicts
about submitting marks online or on printed paper. We insufficiently spoke
about the way that the term was supposed to run and the meeting was not
formally concluded. Everyone left confused, and I went back to the
administration office to cut some cards. I got them cut as seven by five inches
and had the questions I wanted on the back so that the questions can easily be
done tomorrow.
I
spent my entire lunchtime in the visual arts room with Miss Gittens. She had
finally finished the Bristol board piano. One of the yellow Bristol boards was
cut badly. I was lucky that I brought another sheet of yellow to school last
week. I took the measurements from the good-cut piece and cut out the excess.
There was some glue from a large bottle and got it stuck.
Miss
Gittens and I had a nice laugh when I showed her the dot of glue and made the
comment “stippling”. The rest of the evening was nice after having an icy cold
chocolate sucker bag. We went through some of her homework by the rest of
lunchtime went on. I had a while to sit in the office and they decorated it.
There was a little while for the bus shuttles to come.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Wednesday 16th November 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Today
heavy rain poured down and I had to wait and wait in the living room. I was
glad that I did not reach too late. On this day I came to school with my Grand
Staff chart that I had made special for my Form Ones. I knew that the lesson
would not be done until next week or the following week. I just wanted my art
and charts table back home to get packed back. Miss Panchu and Santana really
loved it. I got to share it with Miss Gittens after in the evening after
school.
I
was told by Dr Sookdeo that they had fixed the air-conditioning in the music
rooms for us. I went over and it was a bit hot but I hoped the coolness would
build up. The signs were also put and stuck to the walls and doors but Miss
Roberts said that she preferred them to be bigger. I still did not get to chat
with Dr Sookdeo about the several pieces of work that I did.
During
the last few minutes of the day, I took close to eight minutes or less and came
up with another exam. I found that the multiple choice and comprehension I made
some days ago were too harsh and difficult for the students. Miss Roberts
refused to check it over in the evening. I know there is evening schooling for
her but I left that there and hoped to see what she might say tomorrow. I was
shown by Miss
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday 5th November 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Today
I got to school and had only a few minutes before the first period. There was a very long wait for me and some of the other teachers because the administration office was locked. We did not know that we had to ask the police officer at the gate to open it for us. The regular conversations occurred, safety and being in routine to teach. Many of them watched me in amazement when I answered the question that I was "literally waiting for 8:20 to go and teach my new lesson to the form ones."
Miss Roberts
came into the administration office to sign and she then asked me if I was
going to class while I packed up my things to go. I went over and waited. I
waited some more and then she told me from the opposite corridor that they had
home periods for periods one and two.
I
went back to the office and sat in the classroom next door for the majority of
the day working on the steelpan version of St. George’s College. I changed the strumming
in the introduction. All the pans for verses one and two carried the same
rhythmic pattern.
At
first, I thought that it was not a good gamble. I told myself that even though
it worked in Tunapuna Secondary School’s Song this one might have had a
different outcome. There was a lot of playing around with the introduction
until I finally got something that worked. My only insecurity was the
effectiveness of the bassline. Towards the end of this exercise, the score became
version four.
By
the middle of lunch, I was able to complete typing out the end-of-term exam for
the form ones. I did not mind that the room was hot. However, a lot of sleep
was being fought. Did not know why that was happening. Last night I stood up
after getting the zeal and two more questions to make up the comprehension section.
I had lunch afterwards. The exam paper was reviewed by Miss Roberts and it was
ready for class. I just have to figure out how to do copies at school.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday 5th November 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Today
was the first working day for St. George’s College at the University of Trinidad
and Tobago (UTT) campus in Valsayn. The rain caused a lot of flooding that
morning and the maxis were not there in the stand. Daddy and I walked back to
the taxi stand in Curepe and we got a car. A lady told me in the car that she ran
back to tell us that the maxis came but she took the car with me. Going down
they spoke about Halloween and I remembered it was the last day of October.
When
I got to the gates of the UTT compound, the security wrote my name in their
book. It was different information than in Barataria. I had to ask the guard for
the time to transfer into the OJT attendance log. I wrote the time into my orange
diary first before the OJT log as usual.
Sitting
at my desk in the administration office, the noise was the first thing to go
through with teachers and others coming in and out of the heavy glass door. It
was day six so I did not have classes as well as the rest of the school. I did
not understand why we were asked to come out to the campus so quickly when it
did not seem prepared for classes.
Miss
Roberts came into the office late to sign. We walked around the campus to find
the second staffroom in Block K and later we went to the music room to see the
layout. When we got there, people were still working in the room and they had
placed some tables and chairs in the room. It took up space and we wondered how
the steelpan instruments would fit in the space to the back. All of the tables
and chairs were cramped up to the front and we didn’t know what to do with the
rest of the room.
Some
long minutes after, the principal came into the room with another lady to check
the music room. I soon found out without asking that the lady was the school’s
supervisor. I had never met a school supervisor before but the conversation was
nice. I walked Miss Roberts back to her desk and got my bags to go back to the
administration office. She said she had a meeting and I asked to see her later
for some help.
I
went and started to have lunch and started to work on a bus shuttle form. Miss
Gittens had messaged me minutes going to five in the morning to help her make a
list to check the students go on the bus. We had spoken about this earlier this
morning before school started. As we spoke about it, the teachers’ subject
register I had made over was coming to mind. I Miss Gittens that I could
make a form for the entire month with large columns and they will have spaces
for the five days of the week. I saw the smile come to her and she said she
liked the idea.
I
got the laptop turned on and opened up the teachers’ subject register and used
the Forms 4 to Upper 6 version. I was glad that it did not take long to do but
I did not know how many students needed to be filled into the tables. It was no
longer two tables for boys and girls but just a continuous table. I was able to
get a list of the names from Miss Patel and Miss Sawh when they saw what I made
for them.
It
was only the night after working hours, and I had made two sets of lists. I was not
sure which one they would have preferred to use. The first set was two
documents that had a lot of rows in case there were more students to add in.
The second set of two lists was concise and used less paper. There were two emails
sent to the three teachers for both sets. Miss Gittens had liked them. For the
two of us, the concise one might not have been so visually appealing.
In
the last thirty minutes before school finished, I got my way back to Block K to
work on the melody for the college song. The ‘children’ in the staffroom were
noisy as usual. Miss Roberts and I tried really hard to listen to the video
with the children in the video singing the St. George’s College song. The
second verse had a change in only one measure. I was glad that the review went
by in that short space of time.
I
got a ride with Miss Libert up to Curepe and I got to create thirteen multiple-choice
questions as we waited twelve minutes in traffic getting out of the UTT compound.
Some more waiting on the main road to get there I shared with her the Temporary
Mark Sheet that I had made for myself. She said that she would love to use it
so I sent a PDF copy to her later after doing the two sets of forms for the Bus
Shuttles. We also spoke about the time at St. George’s and Google classroom
before getting out.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Monday 24th October 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Today
I felt bad. For me, it had been two weeks since I had not done much like many
of us in the staffroom. I stayed with Miss Roberts in the music room doing more
of her recording of the students.
It
was only last minute that she asked me to type out her listing of students to
register for the SanFest competition. I wished she had asked me to do it
earlier so we could have had more time to check it through.
This
listing became a DAPHA Project and my logo was inserted onto the sheets. Miss
Roberts did not want it to be a table layout as in the form I made for her earlier.
She showed me how the competition people wanted the information. I was still
able to create a neat-looking document for all of the categories the students
were entering. It was incomplete because there would have had to be more visual
arts students to send in their information.
Miss
Roberts and I both finished our day after three in the afternoon. I was finished
just in time and the rain came down. She left school after I emailed her the
work and I went to the staffroom. Everyone was gone. Only a few other teachers
remained and the tables were empty. I saw that they had their tables labelled
with masking tape so I got some and labelled my desk and chairs. I only got to
have my first meal for the day at that time. The rain came down with thunder
again. Got a little wet in the drizzle but by the time I was on my way home,
the sun came out brighter before the day’s end.
That
night, I got a new software called Anthem score. I was able to continue working
on the Tunapuna Secondary School Song. It gave me a PDF of the music it was
able to get. Unfortunately, the Musescore was not able to do its job by
scanning the PDF to make it an actual file. I had to use what was provided to me
by the Anthem Score software and use it as suggestions. Much of the results were
not so useable. At the end of my work for the night, the introduction and the
first verse were completed.
Link(s):
St.
George’s (2022 SanFest) Choir – “Jireh”.
St.
George’s (2022 SanFest) – Registration Listings.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Sunday 18th
December 2022)
Dear
Diary,
The
following sectioned entries below will detail the occurrences and activities
relating to the creation of the Tunapuna Secondary School’s Song.
FIRST TIME MEETING MR J. RAMASAR.
** Monday 17th October 2022. **
[St. George’s College (Week 5) –
Day #17]
This morning I was supposed to go to join the
teachers in the staffroom for a meeting about the concerns of the school’s
danger to everyone. It was a long day with the morning meeting for heads to go
to the University of the Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) site and the continuation
site in the evening.
Sitting at my desk in the staffroom at 10:12am, I got a Messenger text from a new Facebook friend name John. He was
someone I did not know at the time. After the long and tiring day, we did not speak for
much until later that night.
During our conversation via text from 6:43 to
7:06 pm, he had asked for assistance in music notation. It was to score the
Tunapuna Secondary School song. I learned that there was no existing music notation for the song. It reminded me of my first time hearing the anthems for Hillview,
Vessigny and St. George’s.
I was told that there was something done that he
met there when starting to work at the school. It was a recording of the song
with a lady singing and someone playing a keyboard. While listening to it, I
knew that a lead sheet would have been necessary before beginning to transcribe
that entire song. I was surprised by the length and wondered how the students
would learn it. I suppose it is the same as Vessigny. I just at the time hoped
it would not have taken forever like the Vessigny steelpan arrangement.
As soon as John was approving the lead sheet, I
asked him for the name of the persons responsible for the text/lyrics (Amanda
Jagassar), melody (Juliet Robin) and the name of the school song. I
was told that the name of the song was “Our School Song”. I recalled seeing
that in their school’s anniversary magazine in the newspapers some months ago.
I did not agree with it as a name for the song but didn’t comment.
I was given a snapshot of the school song’s
lyrics. That would have been helpful to me in creating the lead sheet. Before
our conversation concluded, I learned that Dr Mohammed had referred him to me
about notating the music.
This evening was kind of my first face-to-face
meeting with John on Zoom. We did not chat much at first but got straight into
the music topic of the evening. I was the one that created the link so I shared
my screen and showed him the lead sheet first.
I mentioned that the text was difficult to interpret during
the chorus section. I did not know if all of the chorus sections were “thy
light HAS come” or “thy light IS come” since they were not exact. The melody
and piano accompaniment version was five pages in length. The playing was done
and we spoke some more about it. As I did for St. George's and Hillview, I also
had to ask for a copy of the school’s logo that will decorate the score.
As part of the conversation, I also added a share
of what I had done for St. George’s anthem and Vessigny’s anthem. Then I moved
the attention from the three to Hillview’s College song on YouTube. I did offer
John to make a YouTube video of their school song but had mentioned that if the
principal had given his or her approval, I would continue to work on that.
A little before my presentations for that one
meeting were over, I shared with John a short view of the results from a new
software I downloaded called Anthem Score on Thursday 20th October
2022. As I had expected, there would have been a huge mess created. I was
consulting with John during the week about the chords used in the piano part
and he too found them to be very confusing.
While I was busy trying to strictly notate what
was being done in the music, I had forgotten about listening to the music and
allowing it to tell me what it wanted. I found it to be much easier as I used
it this way. I’m glad that the music spoke to me. I was also forced to make
some negotiations as expected and sooner than expected too I was done with the
piece.
When my meeting ended with John (7:30 pm), I took the same lead sheet and began working on the
steelpan version of the same school song. I felt like it was too much work to
do but I did not entertain that feeling. I continued working on the arrangement because I know of the
special importance it will serve later on. My work for the night ended at 9:00
pm.
Link(s):
Vocal
Score with Piano Acc. [Available by Email.]
Anthem
Score Results: Voice & Piano Acc. **
STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V1).
** Sunday 23rd October 2022.
**
At 9:00 pm the last night, I was able to complete
the introduction of the song which was four measures in four-four times. The
verse was not difficult at all to create a strumming pattern. I ended up
ignoring all that was given in the recording of the singing lady and the
confusing piano part. Instead, I did what I wanted and chose to bring it to
life like Vessigny’s anthem and St. George’s anthem.
Additionally, I was very pleased that the same
strumming patterns for the verse could have been reused for the chorus. It
reduced more work to be done and they were copied and pasted in immediately.
Verse three on the other hand presented more
challenges because it was different from the other verses. A new strumming
pattern had to be made for the double tenors and double seconds, and the
Guitars and Cellos.
LOGO/CREST.
** Monday 24th October 2022.
**
In my previous work with St. George’s, I felt
that it was necessary and satisfactory to have the Tunapuna Secondary School logo
inserted into the scores that I had created. Unfortunately, as time went by
from the date above all the way to the end of the team, no logo was given to
me. I had to source the same image from Google. This image was not a proper or
official one.
On Tuesday 6th December 2022, I saved the image and
edited and cleaned it myself. The file format was changed for the insertion of
the image into the Musescore file.
SCHOOL’S SONG BOOKLETS.
** Tuesday 13th December 2022.
**
Last
night I had all the materials to make Tunapuna’s Song sent to print by ISA. I
decided to make a book for them as I did for St. George’s with all the parts
for the steelpan arrangement and the vocal piece with piano accompaniment
previously completed.
In
addition, I decided that it would be good to insert copies of all the parts of
the national anthem I had done for “PanChile” some weeks ago. I heard that they
were starting a steelband trial for the first time and knew that as a steelband
in Hillview, the college song and national anthem were the two most crucial pieces
above all other repertoires.
FIRST MEETINGS & ACQUAINTANCES.
** Wednesday 14th December
2022. **
This morning was an early one. I had a nice
surprise visit from Mr Ramasar (at 11:28) for a while until our conversation
was then continued in the Tunapuna Secondary School’s compound. It was my first
step into the compound. I was very excited. My view of the school was only the
back entrance by my home.
The environment was quite different but standing
in the car park, gave me that same calm and welcoming feeling that St. George’s
presented me all these years. I was asked to sign the guard’s book shortly
after.
It felt like I was definitely going to school. I
carried my bookbag with the booklets and my laptop with the bag in my hand. I
met the Principal and Vice Principal for the first time some minutes after
setting up my laptop in the waiting area. I had the vocal piece with piano
accompaniment opened first to play for them and explained that this was the
work requested of me to do.
Immediately after the vocal and piano version, I
had the steelpan version waiting. None of the three had heard this one before.
I explained my reason and importance and then played it for them. I
found a bigger, better feeling from the steelpan one after playing the vocal and
piano one. Even though I have heard the steelpan version many times before the
meeting, I think we were all surprised by the way the rhythmic introduction
came in. The chorus was way nicer. We enjoyed it.
Once the steelpan version was completed, I got out my plastic bag with the booklets. It was another surprise I had for them. They
were already sorted so that I would distribute them. I mentioned that the
books were gifts to the school via a particular area or office within the
compound and not to a specific person. They understood.
The last and eleventh book remaining in my bookbag
was left with Principal for Miss Robin who composed the melody. One book was
given to the Principal’s Office. One book was given to the Vice Principal’s office.
Three books were sent to the Music Room. Three books were sent to the library
for archival and safeguarding. The final two books were given to the
Administration Office.
In my view, as the Form One version as a Hillview
student, I can now feel satisfied that notation in every necessary way for the
school song is created and is available to anyone. It would be easily accessible
throughout the school and no longer scarce.
YOUTUBE VIDEO.
** Monday 21 August 2023 **
This afternoon I decided to put
together the arrangement and photographs that I was given on my visit to the
school into a YouTube video. There were six recordings done. Unfortunately, after
six attempts, the quality of the visuals was still not pleasing. I am glad that
this project is finally completed after an entire academic year of waiting. In
addition, I hope that it provides a useful tool in assisting the students to
learn their school song.
