Who's the Goose?

Unfortunately another tale of woe: limping around like an old granny today because I buggered my knee again today playing Duck Duck Goose with my girls! I had this inspirational idea in one of my late-night bouts of insomnia that I hadn’t taught my kids the procedure text type this year, and wouldn’t it be fun to teach them some games, and get them to write up how to play them, as a process-writing activity.

And yeah, it was a good idea – they had so much fun yesterday breaking into 5 groups and receiving an outline of a game they would have to work out how to play and then teach to the rest of the class. Lots of laughter and yelling as they ran around in circles playing chains, red light, stuck in the mud, duck duck goose and fruit salad. And today was the big day for 10 Purple to teach each other the games (probably the ‘funnest’ double English of the year!). I took them down to the bottom oval, the furthest away from the rest of the school because I knew they would be extremely rowdy – and they were. I haven’t laughed so much in ages – nor have they, I bet!

Unfortunately, it came at a price – for me, anyway. I had worn shorts and thongs, planning to join in all the fun, and survived playing chains without incident. But in the first round of Duck Duck Goose I just knew that Agnes would pick me to be the goose as she made her way round the circle – and that hunch came true, in more ways than one… As soon as she tapped me, the class burst out laughing, but I jumped up to join in: head down, out to prove I wasn’t an old fogey but could run as well as any of them… but my moment of glory didn’t last long. Within 2 seconds I’d slipped on the mud, taken a major fall and ended up sprawled all over the ground, mud all over me, head to toe! Goose, indeed!!

My poor girls were so sorry and worried – me, I didn’t know whether to laugh or hang my head in shame – but you can probably guess which one won out! I spent the rest of the day giggling about it with everyone as they stared at my mud-stained shorts (7 periods straight, no time to change at all), but it wasn’t so funny by the time I got home and found an icepack. My poor old knee has taken a bit of battering over the years, and it looks like it belongs to an elephant right now, and feels like it belongs to a 90-year old woman!

Remind me not to join in tomorrow when it’s 10 Yellow’s turn…

PS: Oh yeah – another priceless moment in my PNG teaching career: when I was writing on the board in Yellow today, Henrietta left her desk in the front row and came to stand behind me, hand raised. I turned around to find her there, and I was totally bemused, and asked her what on earth she was doing. She just looked at me and said “mosquito”. I just stared at her and said “what, you’re going to hit me?’ – and she did!! She slapped my arm with a sound that I swear echoed throughout the whole building, closely followed by an outburst of laughter from the rest of the class (and myself) that continued every time they saw her handprint on my arm – and believe me, it lasted a while! She certainly killed it – but not before it left a HUGE bite mark! I looked at it again after the shock of what just happened wore off, and just shook my head, telling them all it just wasn’t my day – first I fall over in the mud and get covered head to toe, then I realised I’ve buggered my knee, then I get hit by students and covered in mozzie blood – what on earth would happen next?!

Tune in for the next exciting installment of ‘misadventures in paradise’ tomorrow!