We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Just because we teach children doesn’t mean we are children. Which is why we’re shaking our heads at this Reddit thread in which teachers are spilling the stupidest, most insulting icebreakers they’ve had to do. Administrators, take note: Keep these ideas off your list and check out these tips for improving your staff meetings instead.
“They asked us to organize ourselves by height and weight.”
“Describe your day as a fruit.”
“It wasn’t an icebreaker, but we had an activity where they basically made us discuss our childhood trauma.”
“It was extremely inappropriate and very strange. A lot of people were crying. I wish I would have said something at the time.” —naivemelody4
“They assigned us an animal and we had to go find the other animals in our group by making animal noises.”
“Absolutely humiliating.” —galenakarst
“I once had to sing a duet with a coworker that was supposed to indicate our dedication to teaching.”
“It was quite simply one of the worst non-tragedy experiences of my life. I hate being on the spot without warning.” —lofo744
“We had to DRAW our school’s core values.”
“My partner and I had ‘supporting students’ and we drew a bra.” —diet_coke_cabal
“We had to take an online course to find out our love language.”
“I did not need to know which of my colleagues prefers personal touch to quality time or acts of service. Seemed more useful in a pre-marriage counseling setting.” —rohrsby
“We were paired with another teacher and told to create an imaginary baby.”
“We had to name it and talk about how we’d raise it. My partner and I conceived ‘Bozo’ and played circus music when it was our turn to present.” —CoffeeWitch420
“We wasted half our meeting time playing ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors.’”
“Whoever lost would then have to follow the winner to find another challenger and be their ‘cheer squad.’ The cycle would then repeat, with the previous cheer squad and new loser being subsumed into bigger groups, until eventually, the entire meeting was split between two cheer squads backing one of the only two people left doing the gimmick.” —Physics-is-Phun
“Put an emoji under your name on the board to show us how you’re feeling.”
“No thank you, I will not.” —Normal-Perceptions671
“We had to decorate each other like Christmas trees using school supplies.”
We understand the purpose of icebreakers. But part of school leaders’ jobs is treating teachers like the valued professionals they are. Please—no more animal noises!