This is yours truly trying to get a gosh darn nail in a board straight. Apparently, we haven’t been able to get in nails straight enough so Kaufman had us practice today.
CW21 hammering in a nail while I stand on it to keep it steady.
SE21 also working to get her nails straight in the board. Surprisingly harder than you’d think. I also had trouble with this.
CW21 successfully getting all of his nails in straight so he can continue working on the wall.
One of our other groups moving their wall out straight onto the road area so it’s level ground.
1. What did your group accomplish today?
Today our group cut 3 of our studs and got them all into our wall. We also managed to mark where to make the cuts for all of our studs.
2. What do you have left to complete in order for your wall to be finished?
We just need to get the other 6 studs in. We also need to cut them first.
3. Explain how well your group communicated/participated today. Be sure to include one specific example.
Our group communicated alright. There were some moments where I had to just cool down a little bit and stop bossing everyone around. We had a good thing going when SM21 and SE21 were cutting the studs, JW21 was taking them outside, and I was putting them in the right spots.
Kaufman helping SM21 cut our studs.
1. What did your group accomplish today?
Our group was able to nail/screw in our top plate. We also marked all the studs and where they need to be cut. We just did it wrong.
2. What do you have left to complete in order for your wall to be finished?
Our next step is to cut and then put in all of our studs. After we do that all we need to do is put up our plywood and we’re done.
3. What help do you need from me (Adon Kaufman) or your classmates? Be specific.
My beautiful orange shoes.
1. Describe what skills (s) you have learned so far. Who taught you those skills? How did they teach you those skills? How have you mastered those skills?
Skills I have learned are how to measure and cut studs at an angle so I can put a top plate on top of them. Adon Ishak actually taught me this one. I went into his room and he modeled how to do it on a whiteboard. I have mastered those skills by practicing them on our corner plates.
2. Explain if you believe your group is ahead of behind other groups. Explain why you believe you are at that point.
I believe our group is ahead of other groups because Kaufman told me yesterday after class that our group did not need to worry because we were not behind other groups. Also, we really don’t have that much left if you think about it. Just a couple studs and some plywood.
3. How effectively did your group communicate and collaborate with each other? Provide one SPECIFIC example to support your point.
Our communicated pretty well. When I stripped the unstrippable screw no one in my group yelled at me. They simply said okay and helped me saw it off.
4. Today is a complete reset from last week. What is one goal YOU have for yourself? Explain why you picked that goal.
One goal I have for myself is to not strip a single screw. This is a good goal because when I stripped the screw it was a real headache and I don’t want to repeat that.
5. What is one goal you have for YOUR team? Explain why you picked that goal.
One goal I have for my team is to have all of our studs in by the end of the week. This might be a semi-unreachable goal but if we were able to do it we would be well on track to get our wall finished by Sukkot. Plus, we could focus more on helping other groups.
Cutting off a section of the wood that the circular saw didn’t quite get.
1. What are the five steps to solving a problem (please list the steps)?
2. Your group identified a problem you were experiencing. What was the problem? What were your solutions?
The problem we identified was that at this rate we weren’t going to collect enough milk cartons to make our initial design. Our 3 solutions were either to stick with the same design, cut the milk cartons in half, make the design more basic. We ended up choosing to stick with the same design, and if we don’t get enough we’ll switch to option number two.
3. Describe how it felt working with your group after you identified your problem and came up with solutions.
It felt good knowing that I had gotten everyone’s feedback on a problem that really needed to be solved. We were able to have a really productive a day and get a lot of stuff done.
Me and 2 other group members working together to screw in a screw.
1. You spent time reflecting on past blog posts (looking at your strengths and weaknesses).
Describe the value, using a specific example from your blog post, of looking back and reflecting on our work
The value of reflecting is very clear whenever you look back at my Sukkah Purchasing Day blog. That thing went through so many revisions and look where it is now. Absolutely spectacular.
2. We started to build our walls. What would you have done differently during the process and WHY? Explain what you did and how your fix would have made it better
During the building process, I would’ve made sure everyone got a chance to drill. If everyone got to drill it would’ve boosted morale and made everyone a lot happier.
2 fellow group members working to get in our carriage bolts.
1. Provide a SPECIFIC example of when you or a member of your group struggled to communicate effectively, with empathy, or appropriately. Make sure to include:
a. What led to that situation of miscommunication
b. How you felt when the miscommunication happened
c. How that miscommunication should have been handled instead
I struggled to communicate with empathy when we were trying to cut our stripped carriage bolts. I kept yelling at Coby for not cutting it correctly while I was cutting my carriage bolt the exact same way. Instead of yelling at Coby, I should’ve realized what I was doing too, and found a better solution for both of us.
2. Explain how poor communication let your team down. Make sure to include:
a. What was your team goal
b. What did you achieve in comparison to your team goal
I don’t think poor communication let our team down in a big way. In fact, I think today was one of our best days communicating yet. Our goal was to get our carriage bolts done. We actually completed that and more. We were also able to get most of our wood outside.
3. Describe one positive example of communication you witnessed/did yesterday during class. Make sure to include:
a. What was the situation
b. How did it feel different
c. What the outcome of that communication was
Our group showed positive communication while moving our wood. We were trying to get a 16-foot piece of wood outside through some very small hallways and jw21 and I were able to achieve this without (major) damage to any school property.
JW21 really trying to cut that gosh darn carriage bolt.
Me screwing in some really big carriage bolts.
Describe your prototype design.
Our design is a tiny little box with an egg in it, inside of a slightly bigger box with packing paper, inside of a much larger box with lots of packing paper. And duct tape. Lots of duct tape.
How does your prototype protect the egg?
It protects the egg by using the packing paper as cushioner and just not giving the egg any space to gain momentum and break.
Describe your design process, in detail.
On our first building day, we made the big box, filled it with packing paper, and put the egg inside. This was actually done in 2 days. We tested this several times and it worked every single one of them. We were then challenged by Gev. Jirovetz to make ours smaller. We did this by getting a square tissue box, filling it with packing paper, and putting the egg inside. Once again, it worked. We then tried to make it even smaller by using a 2cmx2cm cardboard box. To say the least, this box did not work as well. We then experimented with putting all the designs together and got our current design.
1. Describe a situation when you collaborated well with your group yesterday (make sure to set the scene: what were you doing, what happened, how did you feel). Yesterday in Restore we did a great job teaming up to lift the whiteboard and carry it into the car. There were a lot of ways that could’ve ended badly and hit a car or something, but it didn’t, and we got it to the bus successfully.
2. Provide a specific example of a time when you did not collaborate well with your group yesterday (make sure to set the scene: what were you doing, what happened, how did you feel). I did not collaborate well at Lowe’s when I was being a little bit slow trying to figure out how many pieces of wood we needed. We actually needed 24 2x4x10s but I was a small brain and only calculated 10. Oopsies.
3. For the specific example of your struggles, how would you change your behavior/actions next time so as to do better? Be specific about what you would do. Next time I would try and adjust my mindset right away so I wouldn’t waste everyone’s time trying to explain everything. Especially at Lowe’s. I needed to be ready for whatever happened but I got stuck and kept trying to use our original plan instead of realizing that we needed to change it.
4. Explain how well you planned (what you need to buy and how much) and executed that plan (actually did what you said you were going to do). Once again, I miscalculated how many pieces of wood we needed so that didn’t work out so well. I thought we only needed 10 2x4x10s but it turned out we needed 24. In the end, we (hopefully) got enough wood that it should be alright.
