The Leadership Project.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD LEADER?
We had a lesson on leadership and we played a game.
Who is the leader?
Melanie gave us all a bit of paper and told us that one person’s paper said “leader on it”. We all had to guess who the leader was. I was surprised that some people thought that I was the leader. They said I seemed confident and that I let other people do a lot of the talking. During the game Melanie wrote things on the board that we said when guessing. It turned out that Jade was the leader but I was still surprised that everyone thought it was me
Leadership
After the game, we all talked about what makes a good leader and Melanie wrote down what we all said in the discussion on the board. Some things surprised me. I thought you had to be confident to be a leader but some people talked about leaders who were quiet and helped others to take charge and this could still be being a good leader.
WHAT LEADERSHIP SKILLS WOULD YOU LIKE TO DEVELOP?
After the discussion, we had to write down what skills we wanted to develop as leaders. These are mine:
- Help others to do well
- See the talent in other people and bring it out
- Come up with ideas
- Lead by example
DESCRIBE YOUR LEADERSHIP PROJECT.
I have learned a lot about music in the last year. I never played an instrument before and I could not read music. I was working on my unit one and I started to learn the piano. As a result, the school booked my piano lessons with Fabienne and I am now going to take GCSE music. The school also helped to buy me a keyboard that I could have in my house to practice during lockdown.
I wanted to share what i had learned with others and give other people a chance to play music because music can make you happy and it is a good skill.
I decided to have a lunchtime jam session where I would get all the instruments in the school and ask teachers to bring in instruments and we would all play music together. I started planning this but then schools closed again and I couldn’t do it.
I was not happy about being on Zoom because of my anxiety and my teachers found it hard to do lessons with me. So we didn’t know what to do.
I was speaking to Melanie on the phone and by email and we talked about my project and she suggested I did something that would help people engage with music over lockdown. That is when I got the idea to make a lockdown song that everyone could collaborate on.
WHAT WILL YOUR ROLE IN THE PROJECT BE AND HOW WILL IT HELP YOU TO DEVELOP YOUR LEADERSHIP SKILLS?
| My role | How it will help me develop my leadership skills |
| I will write the music for a song and lyrics | I will come up with ideas |
| I will talk to people about things to include in the song | This will make it more collaborative |
| I will play the piano on my song | This will be leading by example |
| I will ask other teachers and students to play an instrument or sing in my song | This will help others to do well and for them to bring their talents to the song |
| I will give people feedback on their recordings | This will help people to do well |
| I will edit the song together and make a music video to share with everyone. | This will be helping people to see their talent. |
DO YOU NEED OTHERS TO HELP YOU WITH THE PROJECT? WHAT WILL THEIR ROLE BE?
When I started the project I didn’t have a keyboard or any software at home. I made this list of all the things I would need.
- I need Melanie to help me with writing the music as I don’t have a keyboard or sibelius at home
- I need other teachers and students to record parts for my song
- I will need Melanie to help me send emails to people
- I need some way to access a piano to play my song
- I will need garage band to put all the bits together and I will need Melanie to help me with this.