St Lucia Annual National Choir and solo singing competition cancelled

Desicion has been made to cancel the National Event which all students look up to. In St. Lucia, if there are any event every students, past students, parents, the whole nation look up to, it would of been National Choir Competition and National Solo Competition. Reduced budget in education forced the organizers to come to this sad disappointed decision. However it was said by the organizers that there will be a festival where school get to showcase their talent. Each school is asked to do 1 performance of their choice of either choir, instrumental and combination of both. 

There are many disappointment and discouragement with this decision especially at Gros Islet Secondary School where music department works continuously developing students' talents thoughout the year. 

Day to remember

Today at Gros Islet Secondary School,  another history was written. The day started with ecumenical service to celebrate teachers day and afternoon was taken to distribute laptops to form 4 students.

The ecumenical service was a blessing, some awesome gospels,  touching prayers, mindful scriptures and sermon. This year, sermon was done by Brother Denver Pierre from bethel tabernacle. He was passionate and captured single student's attention. He made them scream with his musical talent and even repent. The whole service was just melodious.  Mr Jeon backed up the whole ceremony. Oh by the way, one class just could not hold the appreciation they had for this specific teacher.  The presented her with a wine, she is none other than Mrs Pitcairn. She is a really great teacher who reaches students' heart, goes beyond her duties and teaches not only whats in the syllabus but the way of life. She is well respected around the school and deserves much praise for her work. She is my partner for home room and she has been supporting me in anyway possible. I dont have many viewers in my blog as its for more private use but I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Pitcairn for all of her work, energy and determination.

After wonderful service,  teachers were treated with a little snack and a drink.

After lunch was the moment for some students. The government has decided to invest in education by providing form 4 students with a laptop, what they call a "tool" to provide equal opportunities in learning against other nations as well as financially abled families. Huge investment and a big step towards better quality in education and ICT. I personally can't wait to start my lessons with students using their laptops. A class where learning can be funnier, more enjoyable and more interactive than how it is now. I have already started a step closer before this ceremony by using Google docs, dropbox, blog and emaiks but this initiative will definitely make our communication faster and more efficient.  To this I say thank you to the government and special greetings to minister Robert Lewis and minister Emma Hippolyte.

Well folks this has been another edition of Day To Remember

Happy teachers week

This job, often criticized but hardly appreciated... It is wonderful to have a week celebrating dedicated to teachers. There are plenty of hard working teacher. I am a teacher and my friends are teachers, trust me, it takes dedication, patience and a lot more to stay in teaching, you have my word. When school does not perform well, teachers are blamed. Even to choose schools, public views as though the teachers are so great in over achieving schools compare to under achieving schools. I will tell you now, this is not the case. You can take the same teachers from under achieving school and replace them with the teachers at over achieving school. You will not see the difference. Perhaps if you can see the difference, the school will be beyond over achieving. My colleagues are so dedicated and passionate about teaching, its amazing to see that there are so many good people out there when we believed that the world no longer consists of good people including us. Anyways, this post is dedicated to all my colleagues and hard working teachers out there. Don't give up no matter how difficult it looks in our eyes. Your dedication and hard work will go along way, beyond what syllabuses and academic materials can teach. Bravo! to end I say HAPPY TEACHERS WEEK!!!

Interview on HTS about G factor

Featured on BAUGMENTED

BAUGMENTED is a blog by Mr. Jason Joseph, Curriculum Officer for Music in St. Lucia. This blog was initiated by Mr. Joseph to highlight effective music teachers and best practices. I felt honoured to be featured and felt motivated as I was recognised by my hard work. Please take time and check it out

Overcoming The Odds

Choral Arranging Workshop for District 1

This year, choir format has changed, there are not test piece. Teachers are asked to choose 2 songs, 1 of which must be a Caribbean genre (not necessarily produced within Caribbean region). The purpose of this change, explained by Curriculum Officer Mr Jason Joseph said that it creates importance for teachers to by creative in their work. Hmmmm. problem? Do teachers know how to arrange? What about the teachers who are not specialized in these areas, like me perhaps. But there were not turning back. There after district 1 music teachers held a meeting of our own to discuss and plan activities for the term. It was then revealed that many teachers to be more specific, mostly all teachers needed assistance in arranging. What is being about that by CAMDU or government? Is this only a problem for district 1? Does this mean the winning school is likely to be dependent on the level of skills a teacher from particular school have? Is this going to be a fair assessment? Many questions comes up in my head but like I always tell my students, work with what you have and don't complain about what you don't have. This time, we don't have time... I was approached by the teachers to give some form of workshop on arranging aspect. I decided to give it a shot and here are some photos. The feedback after the workshop were great. I hope all the schools from district 1 will make it to Finals of this year's Choir Competition

Pictures from St. Lucia

Some random pics from St. Lucia.

This cow is just enjoying the view

I found a pirate ship. No treasure though.










Just a sea view from the St. Lucia