Q:  What do the Almond ball pit, design thinking, teamwork, Project Cornerstone and learning all have in common?

A:  They’re all woven together in this message.  Read on to see how they each relate to one another.

This is one of my lengthier messages, but one I certainly hope is worth the extra minutes.

ALMOND BALL PIT: A year ago, the Almond Ball Pit came to life through a collaborative effort amongst staff, a talented parent, and our students.  It was a work of art and became a symbol of all that was possible in terms of dreaming big and building relationships.  The 1.0 version had a 1.1 update in which a built-in ladder was added to one side.  There also came a 1.2 update that added a bottom and wheels to increase portability.  Students strengthened connections with peers during conversations at the Walkabout and during lunch on several occasions.  There was a much greater demand to use the ball pit than there was a supply of all that was necessary to set it up and to ensure appropriate use.

Tomorrow, at the Friday assembly, the Almond Ball Pit 2.0 will be unveiled.

DESIGN THINKING:  Both the 1^st and 2^nd prototypes were approached through a design thinking process.  The University of Stanford’s d.school outlines this generative process as follows:  understand, observe, define, ideate, prototype, and test.  IDEO, a global design agency, explains it as:  discovery, interpretation, ideation, experimentation, evolution.  This is not a linear process; one might cycle through a few steps several times before moving onto a different step.  Each step serves a purpose towards the end goal of creation.

Almond Ball Pit 1.0-1.2 illuminated a few questions to ponder in the next iteration:

• How might we make the ball pit more easy to move?
• How might we make the entry and exit of the ball pit more safe?
• How might we construct a ball pit that is more easily stored?
• How might we create a ball pit that does not require any additional tools in its set up?

These questions cycled me back to the ideation phase where I sought expert advice that lead to my brother-in-law (set designer) building a paper model of a collapsible ball pit made with hinges.  Next, I needed a builder.  The lucky winner…my husband.  Over the course of the last several weeks, this ball pit has brought us to uncontrollable laughter, tears (literally), and moments that required lots of deep breathing.

TEAMWORK: For Team Benadom, our first task was to figure out HOW to work together on this project.  That might seem silly…but those of you married folk out there know this is no small feat.  We have been married for 14 years, successfully self-renovated our first home in LA, and are raising two remarkable daughters.  The secret to our success thus far has been to divide and conquer.  In our first home, I did all the tile work, ceiling resurfacing, and electrical rewiring.  Chris did the hardwood floors, painting, and took on the more elaborate construction.  In raising our daughters, we’ve developed roles over the years and permit the other leadership in that area.  There has been a lot of negotiation over a variety of topics, but this was the first joint endeavor to actually build something…to “work” together side by side.

For a team to be effective, communication is paramount and an understanding and appreciation for the other’s work style is essential.  That’s where our fun began.

Erika:  “Here’s the model.  I’m so excited to build it.”

Chris:  “So what material do you want to use?”

Erika: “I don’t know.   Something strong enough that it doesn’t break.”

Chris:  “…and you want to do this with hinges?”

Erika:  “Yes.  Let’s go buy what we need and get started.”

Chris:  “Hold on Turbo…there’s a bit more that we need to figure out.”

Erika:  “We have a model.  This is not that complicated.  All we need is wood, hinges, and some sort of latches.  Can we please just go get what we need and start?”

Chris:  “I need to talk through this a bit more.”

My teammate requires time to process and to think through possible scenarios and outcomes.  He ruminates on ideas for quite a bit of time before he’s ready to take action.  I, on the other hand, like to jump in, and adjust along the way.  He thinks of the pitfalls, all I see are opportunities.  Our challenge: how to accept each other’s process as we worked together towards the product.

I am pleased to report that we found our way and created some great memories.  My favorite moment was my husband’s response to the Ace Hardware employee who wished him luck after he explained what he was trying to accomplish, “Listen man.  I’m building this thing for a school and all I gotta say is…my wife is the principal.”  Or there was also an utterly comical 2-hour Home Depot visit where I learned more about latches than I ever want to know and had to do a tremendous amount of self-talk to not go out of my mind.

This past Saturday, we were so proud of ourselves.  We did it!  We constructed a ball pit that had hinges, latches, and was collapsible.  That excitement evaporated when I began walking through how it would be unveiled and set up.  It was almost impossible for me to move due to its weight.  I became overwhelmed with frustration.  That was one of the initial design challenges that we wanted to solve.  It needed to be more easily moved. 

We had both invested so much energy into this idea and our thoughts were clouded with emotions.  We agreed not talk about the ball pit for two whole days to give us some distance (from the project, not each other ;-)) and thinking time.  I think the cosmic forces of the universe also came into play by giving me the flu to make absolutely certain that last thing I thought about was the ball pit.

Last night, with clear minds and hearts, we both stood around the ball pit and brainstormed the, “How might we make this ball pit lighter?” question.  We put every idea out there, even those that were preposterous.  Could we use a different type of material?  Could we bore sizable holes in the wood (my crazy thought) to take some of the weight out but to keep the balls in?  Could we remove sections of the wood and replace with some other type of material?  We agreed on the final approach and talked through the specifics.  This time I steered clear from Home Depot and handled bedtime with the girls, but once they were asleep I joined in the sawing and drilling.

It’s not completely finished, but I have all the confidence in the world that by the end of the day today, Almond’s Ball Pit 2.0 will be ready for the Friday assembly.

PROJECT CORNERSTONE:  You might be wondering…all this effort for a ball pit.  Why?  Who cares?  The ball pit is a vehicle to develop connections with others.  In this Soul Pancake video, adults on a busy street corner stop and take a moment to get to know another person.   The September book for Project Cornerstone in grades 1 – 5 is Friends to the End: The True Value of Friendship, by Bradley Trevor Greive.  In order to make a friend, we need to stop and make an effort to build that relationship. 

The ball pit will give us that opportunity in a fun, inviting way.  Inside the ball pit are balls that have conversation starters to get dialogue going.  By having a ball pit that is more easily portable, we hope that it becomes a more frequent tool to foster relationships at our school.  Students will be encouraged to step into the ball pit with someone new and to discover how they are the same and what qualities make them unique. 

As the ball pit is unveiled, the song Rather Be by Clean Bandit will be playing.  I am inspired by the lyrics that proclaim, “When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be.”  That’s what friendship is all about – being in the present moment with another human being and connecting to that person!

WHAT’S THIS GOT TO DO WITH LEARNING?:  Our calling as educators is not simply to fill children’s minds with content.  This is emphasized in our LASD Learning Principle that details the importance of Process & Outcome.  In Los Altos, we “value the approach as much as the result.”  We strive to create thinkers who know what to do with that content and who can bring some of their own ideas to life.  As our children grow and mature, they’re going to need to work with others.  Some of these partners will have like-minded approaches and some will have drastically different ways of doing things.  They will need strategies and skills to handle a variety of people and situations.  It is our goal to support them in growing these abilities.