On Monday April the 14th, some Leadership students prepared and organized an unforgettable event for all teachers from school with their kids. They could spend some time enjoying some different activities. This event was a success thanks to Angelina and Katherine (point people) for their great work. The families had a great time and the children enjoyed the experience!✨
First of all, during the event I was in the STEM and crafts station because I think I am good at encouraging kids to use their creativity. Also, sometimes you need patience when you deal with kids and more if they are going to do these kinds of detailed activities. Second of all, right before and during the event I tried to offer my help as much as I could by helping not just with my station but in the general set. I wanted to know how everything worked so far so I could explain to other leadership members (from my station) if they didn’t understand or get at all; and I had to. In addition, I helped with hiding the eggs. During the event, I participated with the food delivery by helping the families choose their pizza and giving them their respective plates and napkins (basically, trying to make dinner time more fluent). After that, we had to go to our assigned station. We tried to practice how we were going to present all the ideas to the kids, while they were at that moment doing the Easter Hunt. It was our turn to explain our station to the families: we actually did pretty well. The STEM challenge went pretty successful but it was a little bit difficult to encourage all the kids to work in groups. Even so, overall, the kids liked our station and enjoyed decorating their Easter eggs, success! After the event, I helped with cleaning everything up (my station mostly).
In the second place, during this event I focused on two competencies, with the first one being using effective communication skills in a group setting, which will be sensitive to everyone’s ideas, while still being efficient. The second one is developing listening skills needed to be a positive leader and active listener. I think these two competencies describe perfectly my participation in the event and they align with my course goals, here you have some examples:
- In my course goals I stated that I wanted to join leadership to improve my communication in English (as it’s not my first language), I think that in this event I had to deal with this situation because I had to properly explain the activities and ideas to the families with me being understood. It’s the fear: it’s the fear of putting yourself in front of a lot of people with no way to back out, having to pull yourself together on your own because there are people in front of you waiting for your instructions. This sometimes is stressing out and makes you lack confidence, resulting in bad communication. This is a very important situation I know I have to go through to improve my communication in English.
- In addition, I think the ideas presented above and being a good listener are both important topics for my overall leader improvement; improving in my responsibility which will benefit me in my future.
- As I said at the beginning, before the event I tried to offer my help to Angelina so she could have more people to help her with the event set. There, I was actually listening to all her instructions and to her ideas in the STEM challenge. As I could understand everything properly, then I could explain to my other group members and to the families; I know how it worked, and I was confident to take that leader role. Then, I could apply this knowledge and try to communicate it properly to everyone.
In the third place, I’m actually proud of myself because of my personal achievements during this event. By this I mean that at the beginning I was a little bit lost with everything but then I tried to make sure I understood everything by ASKING and knowing my actual role. I think that was a successful event and that I did a great job as a leadership member.
Here you have some examples:
- Breathe in breathe out: Honestly, I was a little nervous when explaining the STEM challenge to the families: what if I can not explain it properly? What if…? What if…? I breathed in and breathed out and I focused on being understood. Then I realized that if anything happened, there were other members helping on this event and I could just help the kids kindly while doing the activity; this is also part of the process, if not the most important part!
- Want to help: I don’t know if everyone feels the same, but when I do nothing I have the feeling of wanting to help so badly and be active in the situation, leaving a “print” that Laia has helped productively. In this event, by offering my help ALWAYS in any kind of set, I could reflect this idea. Maybe people don’t care but that means A LOT to me (as a person). Even if they don’t ask you to do it, you have to always offer your help and be kind, that’s the point; even though it’s not your niche.
- Teaching my other members: I had to explain to my other station members how everything worked because they came a little bit late (maybe the absence was excused, that’s fine). I feel that this is a very important point, you make the whole group understand so the ideas can come up more efficiently.
Thanks for reading! I hope this event was a good experience for all those families and that it was fully enjoyed!💫
Here you have some pictures that show my participation (I left before the group picture):
(Cookie dough baking)