Author: Alexia

Winter Formal

Thursday December 12th, 2024

EVENT PARTICIPATION:

During the winter formal I was one of the people responsible for working at coat check and for relieving people during the event so that they didn’t do the same task for four hours straight.

Before Event:
Morgan and I were stationed in A110 and got with the teachers and discussed our plan of action. We began by prepping before the grade 12s arrived, which means opening the bags for the coats and writing down the numbers on the pieces of tape. We also arranged the desks in rows and put pieces of tape on the ends so that we knew which bags were in the rows (for example, row 1 was the furthest from the door and it contained the bags number 1 – 20-something). I also helped a little with last-minute decorations because I arrived early, but Grad Council didn’t need much more help at that point.

During Event:
As the event began, my job at coat check was putting the numbered wristbands on people’s wrists and placing the pieces of tape on the bags after Morgan had assisted the person in putting their items in the bag (the wristbands correlated with the numbers on the bags).

Once we were done with coat check, we went to go take over for others. My time was primarily spent running around and doing odd jobs, especially upstairs in the casino area. I moved chips from the playing tables to the center exchange table, shuffled cards for some of the teachers that didn’t have leadership students assigned to them, and brought drinks and tissues for the people working in the casino.

As the event went on, Vy and I began preemptively cleaning up. We began tossing out garbage and picking up decorations that had fallen, and we spent a good portion of time going around with garbage bags and collecting cups, cans, and plates (with one bag being cans and the other compost)

After Event:
Morgan and I returned to coat check, where Morgan would ask the grade 12s what number was on their wrist and Ms. Kim and I would run to collect the corresponding bag. Once all the items had been returned to their owners, we rearranged the desks back to how they were prior to the event, and removed the extra desks from the room.

Additional Leadership in December:
I participated in all the Spirit Week Days (photos below) and also helped clean up the stage after the Talent Show because I had an off block, and because I’m a music student I was comfortable with cleaning up equipment and instruments.

EVIDENCE + CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES:

Alignment with Course Goal:

My course goal was to become more involved in the planning of events. This, however, was not am event where I could do that because it was entirely orchestrated by Grad Council, but it did give me plans for our winter formal next year (which I intent to be involved of the planning of). Throughout the nights I was making note of what I thought went well and what didn’t go well for future reference and use – not only for the next winter formal, but also for other potential leadership “party” events (like if we choose to run spring fling this year).

Example 1:

Action:

Frequent job switches during the event and doing odd jobs

Connection to Competency:
Theme 1: Principles of Leadership and Teamwork – Recognize why it is important to be a team player

Explanation:

I believe that it’s important to not grow complacent during these events and allow yourself to grow comfortable stationed in a certain place (for example, the lovely AC’d rooms with the food), and instead ensure that things are running smoothly, but more importantly that others can do their jobs do the best of their abilities, as well. That is why I kept myself in a floater position (essentially moving the entire event) so that I could continuously go to places where I was needed. Sometimes I would be needed to do some jobs up at casino (drink drinks, shuffle cards, etc), and sometimes I would do other things like keep an eye on a room while the assigned leadership student stepped out for a few minutes to do something. The early start to cleaning up was prompted in the first place because I noticed a massive section of the decorations up in the casino area had fallen from where they were up on the wall, and they were blocking people’s path in the already cramped area, so I thought yikes! better get that out of the way and then proceeded to continue cleaning up.

Example 2:

Action:

Prep work done just before the event began and people came to coat check

Connection to Competency:

Theme 2: Self-Awareness and Personal Leadership – Identify strategies to aid oneself with stress and create environments that prevent and reduce stress.

Explanation:

The prep work that was done before the actual event started was a key step in this; setting our organization methods and pre-opening + pre-writing all the things we needed was a good strategy, because it meant that we weren’t overwhelmed and frantic while doing our jobs, because we didn’t need to worry about lack of preparedness. This is what I whole-heartedly believe was the key to our success, because without it we would have had significantly more work to do. Doing the work before is always better, because you’re doing all the same work you would end up doing anyway just without any of the stress.

PHOTO EVIDENCE:

Winter Formal

Spirit Week Day 1: PJ Day

Spirit Week Day 2: White Lies Day

Spirit Week Day 3: Sports Wear/Jersey Day

Spirit Week Day 4: Holiday Wear Day

Spirit Week Day 5: Vacation Wear Day

Photo Evidence of helping clean up after the Talent Show

Halloween Movie + Snacks

Tuesday, October 29th, 2024

Event participation: for this event, my role was 1) the creation of decorations and 2) putting up the decorations and taking them down/cleaning up after the event. In addition to these things, I also assisted with the recording of the announcements for the joint ‘Halloweek’ (a term I came up with, not that it matters) Marketing & Promo, since I’m extremely familiar with how the announcements machine operates.

Leadership Curricular Competency: The competencies showcased here are:

Theme 1: Principles of Leadership and Teamwork – ‘Recognizing why it’s important to be a team player’

Theme 5: Project Planning – ‘Working as an effective team member’

These do not specifically align with my main course goal, which is related to creativity, but you cannot always be doing the most work all of the time, and it’s important to also recognize when you need to step back and let someone else take the reins. Leadership is fundamentally based on teamwork, so it does not work if you’re trying to be a control freak and micromanage everything. Sometimes, simply doing what you’re told and staying in your lane is exactly what you need to do to make the event a success. So, that is what I did, doing my tasks dutifully and effectively, and even helping others to ensure ‘Halloweek’ was a success. Showing up at all of the lunchtime and afterschool meetings, creating decorations, leaving class early to decorate and arrange the library, and taking time to help record announcements were all part of working towards that success.

NOTE: I didn’t wear my leadership shirt because I was only there for blocks 3/4 (set-up and clean up). I would have been there at lunch, but I had a mandatory Model UN meeting.

 

Spirit Assembly

September 18th, 2024

Prior to the event, I was involved with Marketing and Promo, and my main duty was to write and record the announcements for it. I also sat in on various meetings that were not related to what I was directly involved in, and helped navigate some logistics pertaining to the assembly. During the event, my own role was separate from the rest of my team, because my focus was on guiding Morgan – who was in the Timmy the T Wolf suit – and directing her to where she needed to go, since her visibility was limited.

The competency implemented here is “Help others nurture their ambitions in the quest to attain the goals they have set for themselves,” because me doing my job effectively allowed Morgan to do hers to the best of her ability. While I did double as a member of Hype Squad by assisting in 1) welcoming people in and 2) waving goodbye to them with Morgan/Timmy, my main focus was on ensuring Morgan was in the right place at the right time, and being a sort of crutch – functioning as a backup dancer, indicating where she should go, and helping with communication when people were trying to speak with her. Other actions of note during the assembly include answering questions from other leadership students, and even being the one to indicate which person won at musical chairs (on the far side) during the first assembly.

Note: My favourite moment from the entire event might be when Morgan requested a hair tie prior to the event, and I didn’t have one, so I asked (via shouting at the amassed leadership students) if anyone had one, and multiple hands went up to offer, which I thought was a wholesome moment.

Learning Objectives

I learned a lot last year, and I believe that I was able to accomplish my previous learning objectives. This year, my goal is to take a more active role in the planning of events; whether that means being more involved in determining the logistics of an event, or brainstorming creatively. I didn’t do much in terms of coming up with ideas last year, so I hope to make progress in that area this time around, especially because I can’t claim to be a creative thinker and then not come up with any ideas for Leadership.

Application of Knowledge

Leadership – that is, the action of leading a group of people – is an ability that is extremely useful, especially if you are someone who is in some sort of management position. It is important to be able to not only advocate for yourself, but to be able to effectively communicate what you are trying to say, and having leadership skills grants you the capability to function adequately as someone who is “in charge of” others. Personally, being in Leadership has taught me how to rid myself of the last vestiges of social anxiety (most of the time), which means that all of my presentations in school have improved; I’m not afraid to speak in front of others, so my grades have improved in that regard.

Personal Growth

As mentioned earlier and in previous assignments, last year I noticed a shift within myself where I found myself able to comfortably speak in front of large groups, which was reflected in my class presentations and when I was required to speak to strangers for Leadership (in security roles, meet the teacher night, etc.). I believe I will continue on that upward trajectory.

What I hope to improve on is quick thinking under pressure, and I believe leadership is the course best suited to provide me with challenges of that nature. I am anticipating being in situations where I will be forced to implement fast thinking, and I’m looking forward (as much as one can be) to the practice I’ll get from that.

Challenges and Strategies

Potential challenges may be a lack of creativity on my part, which is not particularly easy to overcome – how do you force yourself to be creative? My strategy is to apply for Point Person as much as I can, mostly because if I am selected as a point person, it requires me to come up with ideas, therefore putting pressure on me to sprout ideas in order to accomplish my tasks. It may be an unpalatable method to some, but I can confirm that it is effective for me, especially as someone who is prone to inaction unless under pressure.