first reflection as a leader

First assignment: earliest recollection of being a leader
Before I start talking about my earliest recollection of being a leader, I have to mention my perspective of leadership. I believe that each individual has the ability to be a leader when he/she has certain characteristics. However, these characteristics are not necessary innate as what the other believes, it can be inherited by learning. Each person has the ability to make an impact in others is a leader. Each person makes decisions and leads a group of people is a leader. The father and the mother are leaders in their home, the teacher is a leader in his/her classroom and both artists and musicians are leaders in their field. All these individuals are leaders because they are able to make a significant impact on other people and in their communities. That doesn’t mean that everyone can be an effective leader, I believe that there are certain personality traits, characteristics, skills and motivations that need to be present to become an effective and successful leader.
When I’m thinking about my earliest recollection of being a leader, immediately jump to my mind my first teaching experience as a training teacher when I was undergraduate student. I was 21 years old at that time and I had to complete one of my bachelor graduation requirements. I was responsible to teach the Basic English grammar for the whole semester. I had the opportunity to choose even to teach intermediate or secondary school and I preferred the intermediate level specifically the 3rd grade. Through that period of time, I became the instructor of a classroom with the capacity of 35 female students who were 15 years old.
At that time, I had several responsibilities inside and outside the classroom. I had to teach the students 3 chapters twice a week and be responsible to evaluate their understanding by doing number of quizzes, making several individual and group activities, and selecting assignments and homework. Furthermore, I had to collaborate with my students to make our final project at the end of the semester which would be presented for the whole school.
Since it was my first time to be in a position of control or a position of influence where I could shape the direction of particular group (my students), I faced some challenges at the beginning however it passed over as the days progressed. At the early two weeks of my teaching practice, I felt nervous and out of control. I lost my ability in managing and supervising the classroom. It was my first time to be in front of classroom so I couldn’t be able to lead 35 adolescents. I didn’t have any idea how to interact with students; even though I came to the class very focused and well prepared, I faced hard time to explain a certain concept or new information. So, with the lack of confidence and being scared to face my students, I found myself ill-prepared.
However, I passed all the challenges by setting with other teachers discussing the difficulties and listened to their different advices. Also, I attended other teacher’s classes and took notes how they interact with their students and what they did in their classroom. Then, after a while, I became more confident and was able to interact well with my students. Finally, at the end of the semester, I and my students won the award of the best final project.
Despite the lack of the effective leader in my earliest experience, I still need to learn more about the formal meaning of being a leader and the ways of making an effective impact in others. I’m glad that I had that opportunity in my early life to experience being a leader but I need to learn more and more of this concept.

Alaa