[TheUnassuming]

We all were newbies at one point, and even after a number of years in labs I still feel like a newbie more often than not. 
Its good to see you ran a crude NMR, its an extremely good habit to get into and can save you massive amounts of headache down the road.  Activated carbon can work with some reactions if they are relatively clean, but with a grignard reaction (especially one with literature precedent of such a low yield) you are typically going to have to run a column.  If you are planning on doing much synthesis in your future, get very used to and good at running columns because it will become an everyday occurrence.