How to Tackle High Schoolers 💥

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Last week, the school year began, and I entered my sixth year of teaching in Nicaragua. (Along with being a sci-fi/fantasy author, I’m also a high school English teacher.) For the first day of school, we brought back a time-honored tradition that had been temporarily halted because of COVID restrictions. We call it the Tape Game.

The name sounds unassuming, but I assure you, the game is anything but. I doubt any school in the US would be allowed to play it. (One of the perks of living abroad.)

Everyone breaks into teams based on their class: Seniors, Juniors, all the way down to seventh graders. Teachers make a team as well. Everyone gets a piece of tape and sticks it to their shirt. The goal is for your team to steal the tape from the other teams. The team with the most tape stolen wins. Sounds simple, right? Well…

Once we get on the soccer field, it gets savage. Younger classes clump together like herds of sheep. Teachers and older classes prowl the field like wolves. Then the chase is on, a student gets tackled, and the predators close in. Tape gets ripped away right and left.

It’s a chaotic mass of bodies getting slammed into the dirt. And so much fun. The kids love it and always look forward to playing every year. But no matter how they try to beat us, we teachers always win. As we did this year.

We are teachers! Hear us roar! And we lift tape in the air like:

*Clears throat*  Well, since that’s been taken care of…Now class, please open your textbooks and turn to page seven…

Anyone else going back to teach or learn? Or maybe you’re sending your kids off to school. Anything exciting happen? Reply in the comments below.