This journal is intended to record, discuss and archive a collection of personal projects that were done by myself. It will contain photographs and scans of paintings, books, documents, research work, and several others that were done by me. These can be found by links that go directly to the "DAPHA Projects" Facebook group. I hope that you find the content in the group enjoyable.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday 5th November 2022)
[St. George’s College (WEEK 7) – Day #25]
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, 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: (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 around ten o’clock, I got a Messenger text from a new Facebook friend name John. He was someone I did not know. 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 were no music notations for the song. It reminded me of when I first heard 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 that 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 version.
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 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 with 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 with a long conversation (7:30 pm), I took the same lead sheet and began working on the steelpan version of the same school song. I left like it was too much work to do but I did not entertain the feeling. I continued because I know of the special importance it will serve later on. My work for the night ended at 9:00 pm.
Link(s):
Lead Sheet. **
Vocal Score with Piano Acc. **
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 challenge 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 on my back with the booklets and another bag in my hand. We 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 either. I explained my reason and the importance of it 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 my plastic bag with the booklets out. 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. 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.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 24th October 2022)
[St. George’s College (WEEK 4) – Day #14-16]
DAY 14.
** Tuesday 11th October 2022 **
The school’s email told us that today was day one. I spent some time yesterday coming up with a worksheet for my Form One students to do in absence of our class. We also had a departmental meeting that started at 8:30 and then at 10:30 right after there was a staff meeting also on zoom.
I did not get the link to the first meeting on time so I took the time to write up the email. I was not sure exactly what I would say in that first email as a ‘teacher’ but I did fine. Only later in the evening, I harsh disappointment myself when I did not ask the people to reply. It would have been the only way to count attendance. Still have to find out who has working emails and some were from parents.
In the staff meeting, we had a short wait and then a prayer was said. Some events that occurred cannot be recorded here in the journal. We heard from some of the teachers present in school that the corridors were not very safe and some of them were leaking. I had a very weird feeling from one of the school’s five emails over the days about us having to be present in the staffroom and not being able to teach. Daddy’s response to it was true in a way.
The meeting concluded at 1:40. At one o’clock, I was having my lunch at the dining table still wondering about everything and listening to the meeting. I fell flat on the couch afterwards. It was a lot to take in.
Today I was sooooo very late to ‘work’. That extra hour on the bed felt good that I awoke from the last phone screaming at 7:30. I darted into the shower and got the computer some minutes after eight. This was probably the latest so far.
I had music with Form One Mitchell for periods one and two. They got their emails and then Form One got theirs some minutes after twelve. The same issue with emails not working or could not be reached occurred. Now all the Form Ones had the worksheet; I hoped.
That night I constructed the answer sheet because I did not want to wait for the morning and have the class waiting. I was glad the information was able to fit on one sheet of letter-sized paper. Since there were two classes for the day, I spent the entire evening writing the attendance forms and then marking the student present on the new register sheets that I made. (The link above applied to this section.)
Daryl Zion M. Ali
(8:02am – 3:00pm)
DAY 15.
**Thursday 13th October 2022**
Today One Mitchell was the first to get the answers to review the worksheet. Some email replies were still coming in from two days ago and the other two classes. I’m gonna have to have a nice chat about that when the next scheduled time comes for them.
More of the lesson plans continued. I was able to do four lessons for the second term this week. Hopefully, by the weekend I would get to do some more or maybe finish that term and be typing them up.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 9th October 2022)
[St. George’s College (WEEK 3) – Day #13]
Dear Diary,
This morning I had the music room opened. As usual, I would turn on the light in the pan room and adjust the air conditioning for when the students come. I would do the same in the music classroom and then straighten up the chairs in preparation for the day of class.
Miss Roberts still had her books of stuff on the desk to look at or teaching books that were supposed to be on the inventory list. I was able to resource the Trinity Grade 1 piano book and sight-read fifteen measures of a piece. It had the word legend in it. The weather changed rapidly into the night and heavy rain burst down.
The two of us were taking the new inventory list of the equipment and furniture that was for the music classroom and the steelpan room. I had offered her to write it when she said that her handwriting wasn’t that good. We spent a long while trying to figure out where the stands and books went. Instead, we made a new list in the school’s book for what was there and Miss Roberts gave me the job to create a list for both rooms.
I recall one of the ladies that came suggested we printed a list of it and had it stuck on the walls in both rooms. The colours for that form were decorated in the school colours red, green, and blue. I wanted Miss Roberts
I recall one of the ladies that came suggested we printed a list of it and had it stuck on the walls in both rooms. The colours for that form were decorated in the school colours red, green, and blue. I wanted Miss Roberts to check over the list but she had to take it by email to leave school.
During lunchtime, I was approached by two students at my table. It was a boy and a girl and they had brought me a lovely. I did not read it until near the end of lunchtime. It was most appreciated. There was a very short presentation done by three upper-six Music students. I did get an opportunity to give feedback and comments too on their practice after Miss Roberts.
The Form One Farell class was not fully there. The majority had already gotten parents to take them home because of the weather and we decided to cancel the class. The whole school had emptied out and the remaining students were in the hall. We only had three minutes until 2:30. Aunty Vangy had come to pick me up and I got to share with them the card that the students gave me. The rain did not come down until the next morning.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 8 October 2022)
[Week #3; Day #11]
Dear Diary,
I came in early and Miss Roberts entered the music sometime after assembly. It was nice to see her after the time she was away from school. She seemed better than last Thursday when we spoke. When we spoke at her table there was a form that she wanted me to make for her. It was a form for students taking part in the San Fest Competition in the various categories they wanted to enter.
The form took a double period (3rd & 4th) to create during her Upper Six Music class. It was not difficult at all to do. I selected legal-sized paper for the list and wrote out the information Miss Roberts wanted. The three girls were preparing for a presentation as part of their School Based Assessment (SBA). I also had some input in it while sitting at the back of the classroom to access a plug for the laptop charger.
That morning I had a double period with Form One Mitchell. The students told me that the timetable had been changed and I was given a double period of music with them. I was glad because I now did not have to divide the lesson in half for tomorrow but teach the entire second lesson. It was better that way for me.
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