I am a recovering control freak/perfectionist. So, when my students work on projects for #cardboardchallenge, it takes every ounce of restraint to not turn into a raving lunatic. Nothing goes as planned; in fact plans are pretty much a waste of time. My classroom looks like an episode of “Hoarders,” and I find duct tape hanging off of my clothes for months afterwards.
I constantly tell my students that empathy and mistakes are part of the design process, but it turns out I should be lecturing myself more than them. While I watched over the mass production of cardboard miniature golf courses this year, I had to keep reminding myself that I shouldn’t be disappointed that my students’ visions were completely different than mine and that it’s not very encouraging to have a teacher keep telling you, “That’s not going to work!”
During the entire week leading up to our first project “reveal” at a school festival, I worried that it would rain. On the day of the festival, bright sunshine greeted us – along with hurricane-worthy gusts of winds intent on adding the extra challenge of giving us moving targets as we ran around the basketball court chasing our golf courses.
The tech enhancements we had made for a few courses disappointed because they kept getting disconnected or weren’t loud enough to make people “ooh” and “ahh.” Some students abandoned supervisory shifts of their courses to go play elsewhere, and one group took an hour to get their course working because one of the students had a picture in his mind of what it should like that none of the rest of us could understand, and he wouldn’t compromise.
I am not telling you this to complain or to discourage you from attempting a similar project. I like to be honest on my posts, so people don’t get blindsided by obstacles when they decide to try out a “good idea.” The question is, was this a good idea?
After we put some weights on the courses to keep them in one place, and students began to stream over to try out swinging the putters, I saw a lot of smiles. I heard a few students talk about how proud they were of their work, a few who mentioned some adjustments they wanted to make, and a few who already had ideas for next year. Some students took extra shifts to make sure their courses could stay open, and there were many kids who would try a course and then get back in line to try it again. In other words, kids were having fun.
I had told the students this was our first big “test” of the courses, because we are hoping to take some to a S.T.E.A.M. Festival in December. To be honest, though, it’s tempting to forget about that – just clean everything up and move on to other projects. I am desperate to get back to some semblance of order and leave the chaos behind for awhile. Fun was had, lessons were learned, so let’s call it a day, right?
But Design Thinking isn’t about giving up. So, next week we are going to reflect on peer feedback, discuss improvements that can be made, and continue to make messes that will create knots in my stomach, but that I will accept as part of the process. We are going to move those projects from good enough to great.
But first I need to buy a lot more duct tape…
