Category: 2024-2025 Leadership 12

Leadership Final Edublog 2025

Reflection

1. How did you feel about achieving the goals for Semester 1 vs Semester 2? Were you able to realistically meet your own expectations? Why or why not?

Since this was my second year in Leadership, my goals were a bit different than last year. I think that last year my priority was to learn the ropes and do the best job that I could – essentially, try my best. This year, I knew that I wanted to be more involved in Leadership overall and use my experience to step up and do more. That meant being point person multiple times and doing a wider spread of roles – for example, last year I feel like almost all of what I did was being on marketing, and now I feel as though there’s been way more variety in my participation.

I’m pleased with my improvement and growth, and I feel more comfortable and confident not just in myself, but in knowing how to balance things out and treat them with the attention they need, but not so much that I burn myself out. I had a habit of micromanaging last year, but now I’m in a place where I no longer feel so much stress and worry in relation to leadership events.

2. What challenges did you encounter this year in Leadership? Were you able to overcome them? Why or why not?

I had hoped this year to do more mentorship that I actually managed to do, mostly because I hadn’t anticipated how difficult it would be. The problem is mostly that the timeline leadership operates on isn’t conducive to sitting down and being taught something, you sort of just learn on the fly as you go. This means that whenever I attempted to explain to someone how to use the announcements machine, it would have to be me saying the steps out loud as I did them, since we only ever have a limited timeslot to record. I’m fairly certain that some people could figure it out themselves, but I would prefer for it to be as easy as possible for leadership students as I can make it.

I know that for IDS it’s going to be mostly mentorship (a fancy way to say we’re functionally Leadership peer tutors) and I hope that with that, I can do something related to the marketing piece – and specifically announcements – so that I can sort of complete my ‘unfinished business’ from this year.

3. We completed many events this year. What was your favourite event you took part in and why? Is there anything you wished we did, but didn’t? Any events that you didn’t like as much?

Notes N’ Sweets was a very satisfying event to me, mostly because I was so heavily involved with it as point person and because it was very successful. Not to say that other leadership events aren’t as fun or successful, but it’s more personally fulfilling when you’re point person and it pays off, being you’re putting in a lot more of your own work and personal time – there’s more of an emotional involvement.

The only thing I would change for next year is more spirit week – frankly, I’d like to do as many as possible, mostly because it’s low-commitment for a lot of Pinetree students and it’s also a fun excuse to wear silly things.

Family Fun 2

Monday, April 14th, 2025

EVENT PARTICIPATION:

BEFORE:

Leading up to the event I participated in planning discussions that we held to determine what the theme and activities would be, and I was also part of the group that went during ESS to create the cookie dough for the cookie decorating portion of Family Fun.

DURING:

I was a “group leader” for this event, meaning I was functioning as a guide and shepherding the kids from activity to activity. At the beginning of the event, I assisted with set up in the cafeteria (setting the tables up at the front and also borrowing tables from the music room was my contribution), and I was the one who went and found all the kids I was going to be leading (and provided them with their name tags). After that, I was deliberately energetic and engaging with the group of kids, and seeing as there was a wide variation in the age bracket, most of my job consisted of chatting with the oldest kids in an attempt to make the event pleasant for them as well, even though they weren’t as engaged in the activities.

AFTER:

I was away on vacation during all the event post-reflections, and therefore did not participate in any discussions surrounding that.

EVIDENCE + CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES

Connection To Curricular Competencies:

My course goals were to improve on my abilities as a leadership student, and I believe that this event showcased how far I’ve come as as a leader. This time last year, I was still somewhat rigid and not as capable of adapting on the spot as situations required. There was always stress and anxiety whenever anything didn’t go to plan, but now I can confidently say that I’ve gotten to a place where I can take punches in stride and not bat an eye (excuse the mixed metaphor). I can see the areas in which I’ve grown and succeeded at achieving my goals in the little moments, such as the examples below.

EXAMPLE #1:

Action:

Chatting /engaging with the oldest kids beyond the activities to ensure they have a good time as well

Alignment With Course Goals:

Theme 4: Public Relations and Forms of Communication – understand the importance of knowing your audience in terms of how others receive your message

Explanation:

The difficulty with having the oldest age bracket is that some of the kids were in middle school and therefore not entertained by all the activities. As group leader, I wanted to make sure that the event wasn’t a “waste of time” in their eyes, and knew that they would need something to do. That something I offered was conversation with me – I approached them and found connections and topics of mutual interest and began discussing those animatedly (for example, with Ms. Olujic’s daughter Valentina, who is in gr. 8, I discussed how high school is and the benefits/drawbacks of certain courses at Pinetree, and with Ms. Roberts’ daughter Penelope, we bonded over our mutual love for Taylor Swift’s music).

The way I behaved with the younger kids, as well, also relates to this competency, because with them, everything needs to be bright and bubbly, even while they impatiently wait to be released into rooms for egg hunting (while we double checked that the rooms were, in fact, the correct rooms). It was easier with them because they were more entertained by the stations, but there were still moments of keeping their interest while they waited for something, or cajoling them into listening so they could hear instructions or follow me to a new location.

EXAMPLE #2:

Action:

Adapting quickly to a situation, being flexible

Alignment With Course Goals:

Theme 1: Principles of Leadership and Teamwork – Identify positive leadership qualities and negative leadership qualities

Explanation:

I believe that a good leadership quality is flexibility, and that was one that I implemented repeatedly during the event. A key moment that relates to that, however, is when a child showed up without prior notice, and there was no nametag or set group for her. In true leader fashion, I adapted quickly and repurposed the nametag of a kid who didn’t arrive and absorbed the girl into our group (she was the right age, anyway), and she was none the wiser that anything was amiss. That, in my opinion, was one of the most important moments of the night, because if it was handled poorly, it could have ruined the night for someone.

Photo:

Notes N’ Sweets

Friday, February 14th, 2025

EVENT PARTICIPATION:

I was one of the point people for this event (along with Pat), so I was heavily involved in the planning and execution of this event from start to finish.

BEFORE:
The vast majority of the work that I did for this event was before the actual date of the event. This is including but not limited to: making the templates for the notes, recording the announcements, putting together the foyer board, and selling the notes every single day at lunch in the foyer. I was also responsible for telling all members of the Notes N’ Sweets team how to go about selling every day. Pat and I also spent an entire block five sorting all the notes into ‘1 for 1’ and ‘bouquet’

DURING:
I was responsible for delivering notes to lower B during blk 2 and lower A during blk 4.

AFTER:
Pat and I led the reflection discussion about the event.

ADDITIONAL:
I assisted Gr. 10 Day with recording announcements

EVIDENCE + CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES:

Connection to Curricular Competency:

My curricular goals were to step up and be a leader more, providing more creative ideas for events, and teaching others some of the knowledge that I have. I would say I managed to touch on almost all those goals by being PP for Notes N’ Sweets. Apart from all the duties that come with being point person, I made an attempt to teach Dowar how to work the announcement machine with mild success.

EXAMPLE #1:

Action:

Dealing With the Lack of Paper Crisis

Alignment with Course Goals:

Theme 5 Project Planning – Demonstrate and apply problem solving skills.

Explanation:

This displays a readiness to adapt to the situation to ensure that everything runs smoothly. While I was meant to be assisting with the presentation about leadership in the library, I had to go down to retrieve more of the note templates (we had run out of purple and needed to resort to red). Epshie and I scrambled to grab the red papers from the office and cut them in the art classes before handed them to the (six) people working at the foyer table. We didn’t want to resort to the red due to the darkness of the colour, but we had lots of sales in the last two days, so we had to use them.

EXAMPLE #2:

Action:

Ensuring everything was done in a quickly and timely manner

Alignment with Course Goals:

Theme 2 Self-Awareness and Personal Leadership – Develop an understanding of the relationship between organization, efficiency, and stress

Explanation:

I learned from my mistakes with Grade 9 Day and made sure to have all the marketing (posters, announcements, foyer board) done as quickly as possible – not only to spread the word as quickly as possible, but to make sure that we had enough time to get everything else done. I knew that because we had limited time, we needed to be efficient and plan so that we’d have ample time to complete everything (like attaching the lollipops to the notes – we finished that quickly, but we also planned for that). I find that the better planned events equate to less stress, so Pat and I did our best to ensure everything ran as smoothly as possible.

PHOTO EVIDENCE:

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.