One wall completely done!  We completely finished putting together our first (albeit easiest) wall.  It is a wall of simple construction, but it got done.  The best part about finishing this wall is that all three group members have since split up to join and help the other three groups.

Everyone is now on the part of installing their studs.  Our two sloped walls are measuring and cutting their studs, at a 10 degree angle, before installing them.  Our other wall is in the process of making their door frame for their wall…a nice 6 foot tall section, approximately 4 feet wide.

moving our finished wall to the side…it honestly is a team effort (and make sure when dropping the wall, you move your feet out of the way)

our stack of studs to cut at a 10 degree angle

starting to frame out for our doorway

lifting our wall so we can free up our studs to measure and cut

each stud has to be labeled, measured, numbered, and double checked

our last slanted wall having the top plate installed

the footer of our wall with the door finally being put in place

it really takes a team to hammer in nails

amazing team effort to lay, measure, and mark the studs

our door wall is almost done!

With only 45 minutes of work time today (we didn’t actually have class scheduled…but caught a break), we had to work quickly.  One group started cutting the wood they will use to frame out their door (using the miter saw).  Another group started to cut their angled studs out…and they accidentally cut the students on the wrong axis (that is okay; we will fix it later).  Otherwise, everyone else made a bit of progress as well so it was a good day to get started!

Every group made progress today!!!  It was awesome (don’t worry, there was frustration as well).  Below is a brief outline of some of the amazing things our group did today:

Group A is about 60% done with their wall.  They flipped their wall around so they could attach the students their header (already did so on their footer).  Their wall, fingers crossed, will be done on Tuesday.

Group B did some heavy mathematical lifting.  They figured out, because their wall is slanted (one part of the wall is 8 feet tall, another 10 feet tall), they needed to cut each side of the wall at an angle.  They elicited the help of our amazing math teacher to figure out at what angle to cut.  After much mental mathematical manipulations, they concluded to cut at a 10 degree angle.  Well 10 degrees they did.  They are now in the midst of connecting their top plate, getting all ready in that regard so they can start to assemble their studs.

Group C finished all their boards and are half way done with securing half of their studs (that is a long way of saying about 25% of the way done).  Great work group!

Group D finished connecting their headers and footers, yes!  They brought everything outside and are starting to work on connecting their boards together.  The biggest growth this group displayed was that of working together.  Nearly all group members for the entirety of class were involved and participating…which is very good to have happen!

Keep it up groups!

Cutting everything at a 10 degree angle

The markings…not very clearly done, but still there; which showcase our 10 degree angle.

just need to connect the last set of studs and we will have one wall done!

yes, we used the circular saw to cut our initial 10 degree cut.

Today was a day of solving problems.

Our first problem we had to solve was as a larger class: how do we communicate respectively and effectively.  We started by working with a template for problem solving.  Each student worked on identifying the problem (s) within their group.  Most importantly, students had to discuss solutions to those problems as well.  Changing our mindset from problem-centric and complaining to becoming solutions oriented was a massive shift, but something that we started with yesterday.  It only does so much good to yell and complain…how do we actually stop the problem from continuing.

Our next problem was more on a group by group basis.  Some groups worked on sawing their bolts.  Other groups worked on starting to assemble their walls.  The two biggest issues they faced were: what bit to use for their impact driver (turns out, after trial and error (and looking at the package of 5 inch screws), we need to us the T-30 bit) and how to prevent the nail from getting bent (hitting it straight on is the first part of that).

It was a wildly productive day.  We have one wall nearing completion (about 50% of the way done), another wall taking shape (two corners connected), one wall being brought outside preparing for assembly, and our last wall still in the bolting stage.

More of the same…working on building our walls.  We had a few technical issues to work past.  For one, a handful of our bolts were stripped at the end, preventing us from getting our nuts onto the bolts.  This meant we had to use a hack saw to saw off the end of the bolt (which is very difficult, especially if you do not put much force into it).  Another group had an issue in that their header board (2x4x12) snapped in half.  We had to rig something up to create our own 2x4x12 (by using the remainder of the 2x4x12 and leftover wood from a different project).  We worked with the saw cutting the wood so that we could attach it.  Another group had an issue with putting in their bolts….they put their bolts in at an angel, meaning their nuts were not tight.

The biggest issue we had as a group was effective communication.  Too many times we got upset and did not know how to communicate our feelings to others.  Instead of calming talking, we did a lot of yelling.  Everyone is at the boiling over point (and we are only 7 days in…oh man).  So that means, we need to take a step back, re-evaluate how we communicate, and move forward; intentionally working on being kind, showing empathy, and communicating nicely with others.

Who would have thought connecting two pieces of wood together would be so tough?  Below is our step by step process for today:

1. Drill pilot holes (little starter holes) for each of our screws.
2. Screw the wood together (to hold together temporarily) with 3 inch screws.  We had to be sure not to strip the screw.
3. Find a larger drill bit (the width of a carriage bolt) to drill holes into both boards.
4. Hammer our carriage bolt into the hole.
5. Find an appropriately sized washer to put on the end of our bolt.
6. Screw a nut onto the end of the bolt.  In some cases, our bolt was so stripped that we had to take a saw to cut the bolt down in size and just hope we could get the nut on there.
7. Use a wrench to tighten the nut securely as can be.
8. Repeat steps 3-7 two more times on each double board…and then on three more boards again.

The amazing part is once we finish these steps…we will have the boarder of our wall.  It might not seem all that exciting to you, but these are the bones that make our wall.

And so the build begins!  Students started working on the most important part of their respective walls: the headers, footers, and corners.  These parts of the wall need to be thick and strong.  They are the major support for the entire structure.  If you do not use strong wood or secure these sections properly, the strength of the wall is severely depleted (and a windy day would be a disaster).

For this process, we started off by doubling up our boards.  If a wall is 8 feet tall, we took two 2x4x8 boards and stacked them on top of each other.  From there, we screwed the boards together with 3 inch screws.  We repeated this process for each corner, the bottom, and top of the wall.

Our next step is fairly simply in name, but difficult in practice.  We will strategically drill holes into our double boards, insert a bolt into the hole, and secure that bolt with a washer and nut.  This will ensure our 2×4’s are now secured 4×4’s (and yes, we could easily have bought boards that are 4×4’s….but none of our students asked for that).

Now that we bought everything…gotta bring it in!  It was so cool to see our team actually work like a team (I even heard at least one “please” and “thank you”).  We had some people outside bringing the wood in, some inside moving the wood on, and a few inside organizing the wood into different piles.  It took a good deal of time, but for the most part; smiles were abound and attitudes were positive.

Tomorrow, we start our actual build!

Purchasing day was tough for us (myself included).  We were under a good deal of stress: we had to find the right materials (and honestly, who has ever found what they were looking for at a big box store?), stay under budget, collaborate with teammates, load a school bus with our supplies, and be done by the time school started.  When under this stress, a lot of us lashed out at our classmates and did not treat each other as we should have.

Today, we started the class off with a bit of a cleanse.  We all participated in a Restorative Circle of sorts.  A restorative circle is something used to “re-actively respond to wrongdoing, conflicts, and problems.”  Each student wrote down the name of someone they did not treat with kindness.  From there, they wrote down what they did, asked for apology, and said what they would do differently next time.  After writing down our situations, we confronted that person and used our writings as guides so as to have an honest conversation about what we did wrong, honestly ask for forgiveness, and to find a way to move on.

It was an absolutely amazing process!

Today was an epic fail on my behalf!  Below is what I should have done differently, to name a few:

1. More intentional prior to our shopping experience in checking each group’s math and purchasing requests.
2. More strict with each group monitoring and being responsible for their budget (admittedly I was a bit exhausted at the end of our ReStore trip and did not have the heart to say no to the group that wanted to buy fix cute pillows)
3. More accepting of help when another teacher asked if I wanted assistance at the store.  I thought “it is only 14 kids, what could go wrong”?  14 kids is equivalent to 100 cats running around!
4. More focused on the process of honoring and maintain the budget rather than shopping itself
5. Encourage more collaboration and being consistent with our belief statements

Overall though, it was an AMAZING (albeit exhausting) trip.  Who would have thought we could fit that much stuff onto a school bus (and our driver was so understanding and kind).  It was awesome to have our kids working together (to load and unload the bus…thanks 6th grade) and to communicate with adults in real life situations (we made a new friend in Ms. Susan at Lowes…she knows everything there is to know about carriage bolts).

Our next step is to:

1. Complete an inventory of what we have
2. Organize all we bought (some of it is outside and some inside)
3. Refresh on basic construction skills
4. Start building