St. George’s College (Week #36) – Day #162

Date for Entry: (Thursday 29 June 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 01 July 2023)

[T3, W:11 – D:50*, (Td: Test Week)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning I came in the maxi with Sadie and Lenny, Form 1 students that I teach. I was happy that the driver was ‘Arthur’ since I hadn’t seen him in a while. Didn’t have time to eat. Got papers from Joshua in the staffroom and immediately Donna came into the goon and pulled out a beautiful bar of chocolate from her bookbag and gave it to me. 

    I went to put it away safely and went straight up to 2M since I was running a little late. Janice came in very late and asked which class she was scheduled to supervise and whom to look for. I told her that I did not know. I saw she had a nice ream of letter-sized paper for the exam.

    Miss Gittens came up to the upper floor to see if the students were all right. She stayed at the back of the class until the last ten minutes to do something. Three girls and one boy remained last. The boy submitted before the last two minutes of the full-time. Thankful that I had my staple machine with me. They had origami to do for the exam.

    On my way down the stairs, I met Janice in 2F to hand her the Form 2 exam papers. It was nice that some of the students were happy to see me. I met some students trying to find the girl that lent the class her scissors to do origami. Luckily, she was in the front of the admin building and I was able to return it to her.

    Mis Roberts gave me a call as if she was in a hurry. She wanted to find out if I was coming to the office and not realise that I was in an exam. She and Miss Jones ended up chatting long And long about graduation and not having time for the students to rehearse. Both ladies walked out of the office and she forgot about me. I left the papers right there on my desk.

    I then had breakfast. At the same time, Jeanice left the compound with Miss Roberts and I was met by ‘Jeremy’ and Aiden. They came to ask if Miss Roberts was there and if the music room was open. I told them that she left and they would have to wait for her to get back.

    My purple pen finished today while writing in my school log. During the fourth period, Ms Coker (1M) met me and asked me to do the makeup test. When I asked when she would be available to do it, she said that she had to go to Merits. Did not even know that they were going to have the merit awards ceremony today. Mr Bains had already come to talk to Mrs Allen Brown about the letter from Mr Hains’ father which I got a copy of from Miss Gittens.

    The girl came back and did it after recess. I took the time to draw for the fourth episode of Project Runway. Crystal got some time to look through my two books and I graded the exam paper. I was very proud of what I drew. Ms Coker got 68 out of 70 and the mark was transferred to the mark sheet immediately before I forgot.

    As soon as the student left, I saw ‘Varry’ and some of his classmates helping ‘Hodgie’ into the office. Apparently, some boy decided to tackle him. Not sure what that meant. I soon learned that it was ‘Mr Smiles’. As they waited, ‘Varry’ stayed back with ‘Hodgie’. ‘Varry’ came close by to see what I was doing. I got to share my Project Runway season 18 and 19 books with him since I knew he likes to draw. He taught me about layering. I tried it and that was very helpful. The colouring did not take me long at all to do.

    Lunchtime had finished and I did not even realise. Jeanice gave me a particular kind of look as I was walking out the door. I tallied 1M Visual Arts scripts and two for 1L. On my question, Miss Gittens said that marks were to be entered into the mark book tomorrow. We also had practice after shuttle duty. We ran through the song five times and that was all. Mrs Santana helped me carry back the pan stand and took me to Curepe. Aiden and ‘Jeremy’ were still in the music room.

    I had study sessions with Uncle Ram and Aunty Anmarie that evening a little later. I came home very late and was sooooo exhausted. We started at 7:28 pm that evening and ended at four minutes to 9:00. The show started and the introduction gave me time to pull the chair, music stand and small table together to start recording the full show. I got my data form out at the first commercial segment.

Link(s):

• Project Runway 20 – Episode 04 Sketch & Entry.**

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:50 am – 4:36 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #36) – Day #161

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 28 June 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 01 July 2023)

[T3, W:11 – D:49*, (Td: Test Week)*].

**vapa chat

Dear Diary,

    Came to Valsayn alone. Sadie and her mom went in the next maxi behind me. I was the only OJT in the office again singing in the date for the book. I sent a message in the OJT chat reminding the others about this week our timesheet would be due after getting one for myself. I helped Miss Dana with stapling the Form 1 French exam. Donna Mrs  Raymond and Miss Leiba pooled in and we finished it quickly while I collated.

    At recess time, Miss Roberts was not in school again. So, Miss Gittens handed me the papers to carry up and keep for her until a student told me that Miss Gittens was looking for me. I was told that Miss Roberts went to complain and make a big scene in the office about not receiving her papers. I gave back the papers to Miss Gittens and went back to 3L. She showed up to the classroom when the students were settling into their seats. I had the theatre students and music students sit divided.

    During the exam, Miss Jones was not answering my calls or text messages when students had questions about an essay question. The cover page said to do one structured question and the instruction for the two (section 2) questions said to attempt both. I told the students to pick the questions that they could answer the easiest first and do that one and then try the other question. Jeanice found me from the other classroom and asked about it.

    Miss Jones came back very late and then told the children that it was one of the two questions to try. She also added that the children should try both and the question with the highest mark will be taken. This was after many of the students submitted their papers. She also did not like me sending off the students thirty minutes before an hour.

    At the end of the exam, I gave the papers to Miss Jones and stayed with Miss Gittens until I got out to find a quiet place. There was a meeting being scheduled by Miss Roberts again. She got off very angry and moody that morning when I returned her the Form 2 papers and said that I was not allowed to grade final exam papers. She forced the meeting to suit her timing earlier and all of us (me, Jeanice, Miss Gittens and Miss Roberts) were called into the Principal’s office.

    I got Jeanice from the art room and we walked down to the office. Miss Roberts was actually early for that meeting. Jeanice and I saw her when we got into the office. Strange how Miss Chote was not there. Everyone sat in the same position as the last meeting. I thank God that the meeting was short. ‘Doctor’ said that she had another meeting to attend afterwards. I walked with Miss and helped her tally papers for the seventh and eighth periods until it was time for shuttle duty.

    We also had the practice of “To the Ceiling” after shuttle duty. Miss Leiba was still not in the mood to do the singing. We ran through the song three times with the steelpan but they weren’t able to go with the tempo. I speed it up for them and the singing slowed down. Then I slowed down the tempo and they sped up. We decided to the song without the accompaniment and it worked better. Miss Roberts had left and the music room was locked. We had to get a guard to open up for me to return the instrument. I told the others it was better safe than sorry. Went to Curepe with Mrs Santana.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:43 am – 4:41 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #36) – Day #160

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 27 June 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 01 July 2023)

[T3, W:11 – D:48*, (Td: Test Week)*].

Dear Diary,

    Came to Valsayn with one Georgian alone. ‘Frank’ was the driver and he got angry when the lady in the front seat slammed the door too hard. While singing in the book I was still the only OJT to reach in the office. I had breakfast in the kitchen and then Jeanice and I helped Donna staple Spanish exam papers. I transferred the marks from last night’s papers that I graded. The attendance for the exam was done and the teacher’s log for this term was finalised. I was glad that all the students were present for the exam that morning.

    I was met by Miss Roberts in the office with her correction for the Form 2 Music exam in the second session. We had some other confusion about who should have the exam papers and the collection of the papers. Some of us saw that Miss Roberts was missing from the compound again when exam time was about to begin. Miss Gittens gave me her papers to keep on my way o the exam class that I was given the responsibility to supervise.

    She took the papers some minutes before recess was completed. This morning I had 2L to supervise their Form 2 Music exam. They were good in behaviour. Toward the end of the supervision, heavy rain burst down and a lot of the students were soaked down. We began to hear stories from other students that said that the ground floor was already flooded out. Only when the rain eased up, I left the classroom to go downstairs. A student came asking me a lot of questions from the test too.

    Lunchtime went by quickly. I had 1M as my second class for supervision that evening. I had to remind Miss Gittens that there must have been a  Visual Arts paper to give me when I reviewed the Theatre exam. The exam began a little late trying to settle the students. The exam began at 1:11 and finished at 2:22 pm. Had to look for Miss Jones but she met me in front of the office door. She didn’t know how to open the newspaper envelope that I made for containing the papers.

    Plenty of dark clouds as night still filled the sky. We were told that two classrooms in the evening had flooded out. A lot of the children before the last exam today were asking if the school was going to be over early. They would have probably been sent to the auditorium. A lot of children also took the busses that evening. The rain would have been a lot for them to walk out to the road also.

    Even though I took the 2L paper home, I  did not bother to grade them. I decided to work on the “My Tribute” score that I sent to Mrs Santana. I wanted to see if I could transform it into a steelpan arrangement for the function and also add it to my archives.

Link(s):

• "My Tribute" -Lead Sheet.**

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:51 am – 3:28 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #36) – Day #159

Date for Entry: (Monday 26 June 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 30 July 2023)

[T3, W:11 – D:47*, (Td: Test Week)*].

Dear Diary,

    Today was the first day of exams. I got to Valsayn alone. Mr Marlon was in the office and chatting with ‘Nia’. I also began using a new book to start documenting my daily events since the copybook came to an end. I used a blue wrapper from a ream to cover it that ‘DD’ left for me some weeks ago. I had breakfast in the kitchen and couldn’t eat much. Was not feeling to eat either.

    Sitting back at my desk, Miss Leiba came in to run her paper but the office staff doesn’t come in that hour of the morning. They got it printed eventually. I helped her staple them over in Block C with ‘GG’ while they spoke with Miss Dana. Recess time was about to begin and I had not seen ‘Deane’ come to check me. A few students asked me questions while the rest walked about the campus without studying.

    At the sound of the 11:00 bell for the fifth and sixth bell, Miss Gittens came and told me that we would have to send the Form 1s into the hall. Wished I got a picture of them doing the exam but it was probably not allowed. Miss Roberts came into the hall late. I could not believe that she just sat there doing whatever was on her laptop while the children had questions. I continued to try to clarify as best as I could.

    There was a limp somehow. She walked out of the hall with Jeanice in the middle of the exam leaving me and Miss Gittens alone to see about the children. It took them a long time to get back there. Then she packed up her things and left after speaking to Miss. I hope she doesn’t come after me when these papers are graded in a way that she doesn’t want it. She may just have to ‘fix’ them for herself.

    When the students were handing up their papers, Jeanice took the 1L papers to carry back to Miss  Roberts in the music room. I packed it in the newspaper envelope that I made and handed it to Jeanice. Walked back to the office with Miss and then to the art room. We looked at pictures of nails during the last period for her Graduation ceremony look and then went down to shuttle duty and a  trip to the café.

    I left and went to sit in the staffroom. Miss Patel and ‘GG’ was there sharing pictures of gardens with me and ‘GG’ kept on teasing me about the pictures with the cats. I tried a pina-Colada suck-ah-bag for the first time. It was really good. The chat among the teachers was wonderful. I hoped they start the baking class soon. When I got home Seth’s paper was the first to grade. I took four hours from 7:00 to grade all of the 1F and 1M papers from today’s exam.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:40 am – 4:28 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #24) – Day #108

 Date for Entry: (Friday 24 March 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 01 April 2023)

[T2, W:12 – D:54*].

**Exam Timetable

Dear Diary,

    No Georgians were in the maxi today. Tyrell was on the same ride as me. We walked into the compound together. Many of the Form 1s were present on the compound and I was feeling excited because my music exam was to be done today.

    Miss Patel and Mr Mario were sitting in the waiting area chatting. I shared the newly amended incident form that I fixed again the night before and they had given me some more. I did like the suggestion. They were also able to provide some more details about improving some of the others that I made.

    While having breakfast, they were short of one teacher this morning. The Doctor asked me to go and supervise the Form 1 exam. It was literature. I rushed it down and went over to the 1M classroom. Miss Patel met me some minutes after with the papers. Some students finished in time. I remembered to carry my stapler but it did not have many staples. It did not take the full two hours. The students were done early. I had to wait on three.

    As I got back to the desk, the time was 10:25 am. I tried to hurry down the corrections that I need to make for this evening’s music exam with the Form 1s. Miss Roberts should call and hurried me up and asked that I walk down to the music room. I told her about my disagreement with the way the supervision of exams was ‘structured’. We had to supervise another Theatre Arts exam for Miss Jones. I was given 2M and the amount of indiscipline was horrible. Too much to describe and write down on paper. This exam finished at 11:50 after two students remained.

    Getting back into the office before I could even sit down, three students from 1F came to visit me. They had their recorders in their hands and I was very happy. I handed one of the students my bookstand and I got my purple folder with forms to do the assessment. I had thirteen students in all. Six of them were around me. Five more from 1F came and then Matthew and Nathaniel came. That was a very exciting and happy lunchtime I had as a first.  

    As soon as I got back into the office, I did not realise that the whole lunchtime had passed. I had exactly five minutes before 1:00 pm when the Form 1 music exam would come. Miss Roberts came hurrying me up again and I did not like it. Miss Jones had sadly bailed out on us and we were short of one person to do the third Form 1 class. I saw Daysha coming out of the office to supervise. Probably it was a makeup for this morning.

    Miss Patel was sorry for me because I had been through everything the whole day and did not get time for myself. She asked if I wanted someone else to come fill in for me and I told her that I would do the exam again. I supervised 1M again this morning. I saw Miss Jones from the classroom window as she was about to leave the compound during the exam. The class finished very early around 1:55 pm.

    I went to check in 1F with Miss Roberts supervising them. They seemed happy to see me. Miss Roberts told me that she would be taking that batch to grade out. I did not like hearing that and would have preferred to take all at home and grade them over the weekend. She did not let the papers go so I will have to wait until next week to go and regrade all the papers. She got out of the ‘music room’ and so we just waited for the guard to come open for us.

    I had a short wait with Daysha trying to get two students to finish their test. I went back to the office to cool down for the day. Miss Patel met me again. Sometime after three in the afternoon, Doctor had to get something in Miss Chote’s office. She saw me and spoke to me as she went in. She said that she had a meeting with a parent earlier and they said that they like the way I’m teaching. She did not remember the name of the child.

    As she stood by the side of my desk, she remembered the time that I asked to speak which was on the first day of this term. We had a very brief discussion on some of the forms that I had created over. I tried to see how best she could advise me on the new amendments that I did. There was something for signatures that a teacher or dean could sign which did require a principal signature that she mentioned.

    One that might have to change was the “School’s Numbers & Population” form that I tried to do straight from the school’s original one. I might have to make it complete to suit some of the needs that were suggested to be in the form. I was also invited to speak at a meeting but she asked if I was willing to speak at the Management meeting or the Staff meeting. I asked for the staff meeting and she said that it would be fine and to prepare for it on Friday.

    Someone came and took her attention to another matter. I couldn’t do anything after this day had been completed. I fell asleep at six and woke up at eight. Did some work until one in the morning and went to bed.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:39 am – 4:54 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #24) – Day #107

 Date for Entry: (Thursday 23 March 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 01 April 2023)

[T2, W:12 – D:53*].

**Exam Timetable

Dear Diary,

    Another tough morning to wake up. There was one Georgian with me in the maxi to get to Valsayn. Not many OJTs were around as yet. Miss Shaw came to ask for the Form 3 music exam but I had to let her know that Miss Roberts still had all. The office remained quiet for the morning while I had breakfast. That was a strange experience because it is not so quiet every day.

    Miss Briggs went to staple the Form 2 Visual Arts papers that also set. They added a blank sheet of paper to the back. I had the Form 2 papers returned to Miss Roberts and told her about doing the multiple-choice papers only. She said it was fine and that she had the other classes finished. I was given 2F to supervise the Visual Arts exam and Mr Cape was too much to deal with.

    I could not find Miss Gittens so I left the papers on her desk in the Block C staffroom for her. She found me doing this journal entry in the office. Four girl students that don’t study found me and I was very angry before they tell me anything because I knew they were not prepared and coming to ask for a last-minute miracle that cannot be done.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:53 am – 4:46 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #24) – Day #106

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 22 March 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 01 April 2023)

[T2, W:12 – D:52*].

**Exam Timetable

Dear Diary,

    I came with two Georgians in the maxi. It was one of the Form 1s that I teach. No one had signed in the OJT book as yet. I met Miss Briggs as she came in and we spoke about the tough work I went through last night. She could not get the exam printed that morning because the office ran out of paper. The clerk had to go down to St. George’s to get them.

    As I sat and ate breakfast, there was no sign of Miss Roberts and the moderator for Form 6s came in early at about fifteen minutes to nine. There was a lot of plenty fire burning in the nearby surroundings again. Sadly, teachers were saying that the firefighters would only come I it was a serious matter. I had to escape being in front of the school because the cough was not going to treat me well. I took my stuff to the library to work on the Form 1 book.

    I spent three hours in the library working, I went to help them staple the Form 1 Visual Arts exam in the art room. I had to leave them because Miss Jones was trying to fix up her Theatre Arts exam and Music exam for the Form 3s. Somehow there was a mix-up in the timetable and they moved the VAPA exams for Form 3s today. I had to take the papers while the Form 6 moderation was going on. It was another music multiple choice exam but some of the students had difficulty understanding the smudged printing.

    During the third session of exams, Miss Gittens asked me to invigilate 1L. I saw Miss Pope in there and waiting for someone to take over because she was sick. I thank God that when I am sick, I could continue just like mommy did and not complain. During that test, ‘Twinkle’ made three scenes. That was the first time getting to us the irregularities part of the examination cover page.

    It took me 3 hours that night to grade and mark the 3F and Form 2 papers. I only did the multiple-choice part in the Form 3 paper and left the other section for miss to do.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:45 am – 3:27 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #24) – Day #104

 Date for Entry: (Monday 20 March 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 01 April 2023)

[T2, W:12 – D:50*].

**Exam Timetable

Dear Diary,

    Today was the first day of exams. I came down to school in the maxi with two Georgians. I looked over the Form 1 music exam that I created. Aunty Vangy sent me two things to correct. I was glad that the day was short. I had a lot of battling with this sickness. Not sure why it is not going. There was still a lot of shortage for teachers to supervise the exams.

    During the day, just before recess, I had the Form 2 Visual Arts exam emailed to Janice to fix it in the way they wanted it. The Form 3 Visual Arts paper was printed and the three of us stapled them together. This was done four minutes before the actual exam began. Miss Gittens and Miss Briggs went to supervise their exams upstairs.

    I waited for the Form 2 and Form 3 Music papers to finish print. She had a Form 5 practice test for paper one. I stapled all the Form 2 papers and then helped the two Form 6 students staple the Form 3 papers in Miss Roberts’ office in the music room. She asked for prints for me to make them. The same Form 5 students would be having their Paper 3 moderation tomorrow.

    I had fun chatting with Miss Gittens and Miss Lieba after school with the shuttle. I took the time to create the dots chart for the Form 1s. It was certainly a lot of hard work to do in three hours no matter how tired I was but it was beautiful.

Link(s):

• Dots Chart. **

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:29 am – 4:13 pm)