Video Transcript for One-Two-Three
presented by Mark Collard
… moment I’m now going to share with you an exercise that has literally been in every single program I have delivered in the last sort of fifteen months. I saw a Chinese educator share this activity with me and it was new to me and it has been an absolute boon for my programs, but maybe it’s not new for you, I don’t know.
But let me share something with you first of all what I first learned from them, and then what I’ve added to it since.
So you’re going to be facing your partner first of all. So Georgia, you and I are going to be facing each other so we’ll just work it like we could see each other and everyone can see us. That’s perfect.
Now I may have set you up, but I’m confident that you can count to three. Okay, right, I’m not being silly because in a moment we’re all going to laugh about the fact that either one of us is going to forget how to do that.
Alright? So here’s how it works. One of us shall start by saying one, clearly. The other person will then follow by saying two. The other person then says three, then we start again.
The object to this exercise is to say one-two-three, one-two-three, as quickly and as accurately as possible. Okay? So this is a little bit how it sounds and looks. Are you ready?
(Yes.)
Would you like to start or me?
(I’ll start. One.)
Two.
(Three.)
One.
(Two.)
Three.
(One.)
There it is, folks. See what you could do in ten seconds, as fast, as accurately as possible. Go.
(people counting)
At this point you’ll have discovered just how hard it can seem… Because I write books for a living, not only do I write a lot of stuff that ends up online for the database as well, but I know just as a practitioner if I had read that in a book I would turn the page going how much fun would counting to three be? I’ll just turn the page and look for something more interesting.
Well, we’ve only just started. So Georgia, you and I, facing off. So you already know the first part, okay? We’re still going to do the same thing but for one thing now is that we no longer say “one”. We replace “one” with a clap above our heads. The clap must be above your head. It can’t be in front of you. It can’t under your leg or anything like that. It must be above your head with your hands starting by your side.
So it now sounds like clap-two-three, clap-two-three, again as accurately and as fast as possible. Would you like to start or me?
(You can start.)
Are you ready? Here we go.
(Mark clapping)
(Two.)
Three.
(Georgia clapping)
Two.
(Three.)
(Mark clapping)
(Two.)
Three. Alright, you got the idea. How far can you go?
(people playing One-Two-Three)
So Georgia, okay, so we now move on. So now we’ll replace number “two” with something. So we’ve already replaced “one” with a clap. “Two” will be replaced with just a little jump. Okay? It’s just something where you come off the ground a little bit. So it’s going to look and appear like a clap-jump-three, clap-jump-three, clap-jump-three. Are you ready? Would you like to start or me?
(I’ll start.)
Okay.
(Mark and Georgia demonstrating)
Alright, you got the idea. See how far you can go.
(people playing One-Two-Three)
Crazy. Now I should also warn you at this point I have been very easy on you because when I first learned this, remember it was a Chinese educator, I was working in Beijing a lot last year, working with a couple of schools. A
nd this particular educator naturally using their native tongue introduced it in Mandarin. So the game is actually y?-èr-s?n, y?-èr-s?n, y?-èr-s?n which is one-two-three in Mandarin. But we’re just doing the English version for now, because that’s about as much Mandarin as I know.
Alright, setting up ourselves here, Georgia. So we already know the “one” and we know the “three”. We now… Sorry, “two”. We now replace the “three” with a “meow”, just a cat’s meow. Alright, so it’ll sound like a clap-jump-meow, clap-jump-meow. Alright, are you ready?
(Yes.)
Here we go. Would you like to start or me?
(You start.)
Here we go.
(Mark and Georgia demonstrating)
Alright. See how far you can go.
(people playing One-Two-Three)
Same exercise but right into it. You already know the one-two-three now, so go right into clap-jump-meow with your high-five partner. Go.
(people playing)
Doing this quite comfortably as I have shown it to you to this point, and then someone, it was actually a student, some months ago had said, Could you do this in teams? And do you know what my initial reaction was? No, you just do it in pairs, that’s how you do it.
Because guess what? Particularly if you are experienced but also when you’re new you tend to focus on that which you are comfortable. That makes sense. That’s how we are built as human beings, it’s baked into our DNA is to seek comfort. And so we work with those areas that we are comfortable with.
So when I have been presented with the idea of can you do it in teams I’m going but I’m really comfortable with singles, just one other person, so I know that works, let’s just do that. So I then said okay, well let’s give it a go.
And this is what happened. You and your current… who is it, handshake partner at the moment? Just find another pair to stand with right now. Don’t do anything else. Just simply stand with them.
… you are my demonstration model. I’ll go to the end here. We’ll have two groups facing each other. It won’t matter the number of people. So there’s three and three in this occasion.
As a team we are going to start with a clap, then as a team you’re all going to jump, and then as a team we’re all going to meow at you and backwards and forwards, again as quickly and accurately as possible.
Naturally if one of us, any team, makes a mistake, you get to have a good belly laugh and then start again. So would you like to give this a go, we’ll see how it goes? Shall we start?
(Yes.)
Okay, on three. One, two, three.
(teams demonstrating)
You got the idea. See what you could do. Keep on going.
(people playing One-Two-Three)
On paper, this exercise seems so easy, until you actually do it. Therein lies the fun and laughter.
Ask your group to pair up with a partner, perhaps using a fun technique from Getting Into Pairs. Then facing one another about a metre (3′) apart, explain that there are four levels of challenge to this exercise.
The first, very simple challenge requires each pair to count out loud the numbers 1, 2 and 3, and to keep repeating these numbers in sequence for as long as possible without a mistake. However, each person only says one number at a time.
For example, Jane may start with “1” and then Amber says “2,” then Jane says “3” and then Amber starts back at “1” etc.
Give your pairs a chance to practice this highly refined skill, and then push onto the second level which involves substituting the speaking of “1” with a clap above one’s head. So, the exercise will sound like [clap], “2, 3,” [clap], “2, 3″… etc.
You can imagine what’s about to happen next.
The challenge now is to repeat the task, but this time, substitute saying “2” with doing a little jump on the spot. Listening to two people doing this task will sound like [clap], [jump], “3,” [clap], [jump]… etc.
Finally, we reach the ultimate challenge. Substitute the number “3” with the sound of a cat’s meow. Putting it all together, it will sound like this – [clap], [jump], “MEOW,” [clap], [jump], “MEOW,” … etc.
If it sounds funny, I promise you, it will look even more hilarious.
The key to all of these challenges is to complete the exercise as quickly, accurately and for as long as possible.
Suggest that if someone makes a mistake, the pair enjoys a good belly laugh for a moment, and then starts over.
Common errors include performing a move or sound at the wrong time, or perhaps even moving when all they had to do was speak a number.
This is a new one for me. I love it! Waiting for a chance to use it.
Mary, you will LOVE this one. A classic partner that I could just imagine the likes of Karl Rohnke pulling out frequently to invite his groups to play and laugh.
finally used this as a synthesis activity – on the last day of a 3 day workshop. first two days had lots of sharing about what participants called ‘mistakes’, or finding opportunities to doing things differently.
so the framing was ‘how do we look at mistakes? what comes up when we or others make mistakes? one of the learning/applications questions was: what are opportunities to help manage these situations?
i thought it worked well – people were laughing harrrrrd, sharing insights, identifying future scenarios. this was one of 4 activities to end the 3-hour afternoon session. (along with group juggle – 3 levels, appreciation/affirmation, gift giving connections [like group juggle with a string])
yeyyyyy!
Terrific stuff JeWElle, I’m so glad you gave this go. It is one of my all-time faves. Thanks for sharing.
Lovely. Simple and amazing.
Fantastically simple! Love the additions to the base exercise too, Mark!