Last week we launched the Your Enterprise Alphabet (YEA!) cards across the internet and in person at a TeachMeet in Hull – at the #TMHullEY – in one of our favourite client schools, Malet Lambert.
The 14th April was the Deadline to a Lifeline I wrote about in the blog last week which gave us the motivation and ABSOLUTE LATEST date that the cards could be ready.
Right, the cards were ready, I was speaking for 7 minutes, not a sales pitch and following one of the Gods of UK Pedagogy Hywel Roberts…I had better make this flippin’ good!
I was racking my brains about how to show people the YEA cards and show how they could be used to develop enterprise skills and positive thinking…and then I read the instructions I had myself written only 3 weeks before ‘play Countdown’! BOOM! That’s it!
I downloaded the theme tune, sorted the cards into vowels and consonants and made sure there was a good mix of letters in each pile, got the Game Show Host bow tie ready and asked the school about using some music stands…there were no music stands available…ok, I’ll just get some wood or a shelf from B&Q and make some stands, or will I?
Everywhere I went there wasn’t quote the right thing – starting in the garage and loft, pound shops, bargain shops, charity shops and even the DIY store didn’t quite have what I needed. Time was running out.
An hour before I was due at the school I still didn’t have what I needed…then creativity kicked in…in Home Bargains I saw a long blank canvas picture frame ‘what if I turn it over?’ perfect – a little shelp / ledge and containment, I got two of them, then hotfooted it to B&Q and got some of those ‘one handed, ratchet clamp things’ (which I how I described it to the assistant with some attendant crab-like hand motions).
Frame
Clamps
Cards
Music
Prizes
Timing
DONE!
Until I came to the room and realized that I’d not really WATCHED Countdown for years, so needed to run through how it worked! With some assistance from Ken McCall and Stephen Logan at the school and a few laughs with the other presenters I was relaxed and ready to go.
The event was great fun, Hywel was the star of the show and felt I gave a good account of myself on the day – someone actually tweeted that I was the King of Countdown which I’m pretty happy with!
What did I learn? That even when you’re ready, there’s always something you can do to be more prepared!
Check the Twitter feed at @EnterpriseSBox for details and RTs from last week’s teach Meet (and the #TMHullEY hashtag).
If you’d like some cards to use in schools, businesses or colleges please visit the Shop on this website – link at the top of the page on the right!
Bernie.
(King of Countdown. Apparently).