Here is a picture of our half finished wall with some studs in. We are putting in studs to ensure that our wall is safe and sturdy. I worked with others to get this done by one person bringing in the wood, one person cutting it, and one or two people assembling in the wood(stud).

In this picture, we are learning how to put nails in wood the correct way because we are having difficulty doing this. I worked with others to get this done by if I needed someone to help me take out the nail, they would do so.

Here is a picture of a group mate hammering in nails for one of our studs. We are doing this so that the stud doesnt fall out. You work with others because if you need help hammering, you can ask them!

1. What did your group accomplish today?

Today my group cut some of the studs(in order for them to fit on the wall). Then we nailed and screwed them in to secure them.

2. What do you have left to complete in order for your wall to be finished?

In order to complete our wall, we need to finish cutting and nailing/screwing in studs. Then we will put on the plywood.

3. Explain how well your group communicated/participated today. 

Our group communicated/participated well today by sharing the responsibilities of what it takes to cut a piece of wood(in order for the stud to fit). This happened by one or two people carrying in the wood, one or two people cutting it, then one or two people carrying the wood back outside.

Here is a picture of a group member and teacher cutting the wood for our studs.

1. What did your group accomplish yesterday?

Yesterday we connected the last two pieces of wood together so that we can have a frame for our wall. Then we measured to see where all our studs are going to go. Then we labled the spots and pieces of wood that we are going to need in order to do our studs.

2. What do you have left to complete in order for your wall to be finished?

In order to complete our wall, we need to put in studs and then cover those up with plywood.

3. What help do you need from me (Adon Kaufman) or your classmates? 

I need everyone to be patient if I dont get something right  the first time I try. For example, yesterday when measuring out where I needed to put studs, I didnt get it right the first time, so I needed patience in order to compelete what I was supposed to do.

Here is a picture of a part of our wall frame while we were in the process of our measuring our studs.

1. Describe what skill you have learned so far. Who taught you that skill? How did they teach you that skill? How have you mastered that skill?

I have learned how to put a nut on top of a carriage bolt to tighten it. My group and teacher taught me how to do this. They taught me the skill by demonstrating it for me because I am visual learner, so I learn best by seeing things. I have mastered this skill by doing it by myself without any group member or teacher helping me and no example in front of me.

2. Explain if you believe your group is ahead of or behind other groups. 

I feel that we are are ahead of all groups besides for one. This is because one group is already putting in their studs, meanwhile we are still connecting all the different sides of our wall together. We are ahead of the rest of the groups because they arent connecting the pieces of their wall together yet, or if they have, they have not done as many pieces as us.

3. How effectively did your group communicate and collaborate with each other? 

Our group was pretty efficient with communicating and collaborating. I know this because whenever one person needed to get something but was busy at the time, they would ask another group member to get that material. This way, everyne has a job and we are all working together!

4. Today is a complete reset from last week. What is one goal YOU have for yourself? 

A goal I have for myself is to go out of my comfort zone and to do more things with the tools we are using(that I have not used before or have not had a lot of practice with). I picked this goal because I feel that sometimes I only help by getting materials, instead of actually building and being apart of that process.

5. What is one goal you have for YOUR team. 

A goal I have for my team is to keep on doing a great job of working together(just like we are doing). This is because if we do this, one it makes everyone feel good. Second, we can have the Sukkah built in time and we can all be very proud of ourselves.

In this picture, a classmate is hammering so that the wood connects together.

1. What are the five steps to solving a problem ?

-Find out what the problem is

-Remain calm and trust yourself and groupmates that it will work out(if need be, use calming strategies)

-Think of three ways(at minum) to solve the problem

-Discuss all possible solutions then all agree on the best one

-If your first idea works, great! If it doesnt, use another idea

2. What was the problem your group was experiencing? What were your solutions?

The problem was that we might not have enough milk cartons to make out the initials of our school name. The three possible solutions we came up with were that we should keep announcing at lunch that we need people’s cartons when they are done drinking from them. The second idea was to cut the milk cartons in half to have more cartons. The third idea is to make the design more basic by not making the  letters as big and wide.

3. Describe how it felt working with your group after you identified your problem and came up with solutions.

It felt really good and refreshing to work with my group. I say this because before we identified the problem, It felt like there was some tension between different groupmates. Now that we figured out the problem, we are all calm and all compromising and getting a lot more work done/being very productive.

Here is a picture of one groupmate screwing in a screw. The other group member is holding down the wood so that it doesnt move all over the place.

1.  Explain a time when you or a member of your group struggled to communicate effectively, with empathy, or appropriately.

The situation was that when a group member didnt ask in such a nice way for a tool, it made me feel bad. This was because we all want to be respected and at that moment I didnt really feel respected. I think what led to the situation was that we were all just really stressed out and tired, so we all kind of lost it. Next time, the communication should be handled in a more respectful way so we get the job done and all feel respected.

2. Explain how poor communication let your team down. 

The poor communication let my team down because our goal was to get all our wood pieces out of the building before class was over and we were not able to do so. Instead, we got most of our wood pieces outside and today we will hopefully finish getting all the pieces of wood outside.

3. Describe one positive example of communication you witnessed/did yesterday during class. 

An example was when the person in my group who didnt make me feel so respected before, apologized which made me feel better. It felt really good to communicate in a positive way because everyone is happier and you are not mad at each other which is a nice feeling to have.

In this picture, we are making sure the nuts are all tight (with a wrench) so that the walls stay together.

1. Describe the value of looking back and reflecting on your work.

A time when I found value in reflecting was when we were blogging about our reflections of the shopping trip day. This was valuable to me because I felt that this wasnt my best day. While writing, I really realized what went wrong and how I could fix those problems to do better.

2. What would you have done differently during the process of building walls? WHY? 

What I would have done differently was be more understanding of why things were kind of out of control and why somethimes I would not be doing anything, or why it felt like I was doing it all. I say this because while we were assembling the wood, it felt like there was no stability with what we were doing and sometimes you wouldnt be productive. Maybe if I would have been more understanding I think I wouldn’t have been as overwhelmed, and that way, we could have gotten more done.

Here is a picture of one classmate standing on the wood to hold it down, so nothing moved and/or got out of place. The other classmate is connecting the wood.

1. Describe the restorative circle process. 

The restorative circle process was when we all got to apologize to each other. The reason for this was because the day before, while shopping for the materials of our Sukkah, we all kind of lost it. We all wanted to apologize for what we did and this seemed like the best way to do so. What we did was we each wrote on a notecard something that we were sorry for. Then we shared it with the person who we did the not so nice thing to (or with the whole class). When I wrote on my notecard(I was writing an apology to the whole class for if I was mean while loading wood onto the bus). It felt to good get out my feelings and then it felt really good to share it with others so others knew how I felt and that I was really sorry.

2. Describe how much easier/harder it was to bring the wood in when we were all working together.

It was so much easier when we brought in the wood together because when you do teamwork, the faster something goes(usually). An example of this was when we were bringing wood into the innovation hub through the window. If I carried one piece of wood by myself, it would have taken much long(because its heavy). Although if more than one person carries the wood, its lighter, therefore easier to carry and you can move it faster. It is really fun when you work together because when you are done you can all celebrate toegther and be proud of what you just did!

Here is a picture of classmates waiting for pieces of wood to come through the window.

Here is a picture of classmates organizing the wood according to its size.