The Most Insulting Icebreakers Teachers Have Had to Do

ByLavinia E. Smith

May 11, 2022 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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 recent 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.

“They asked us to organize ourselves by height and weight” —@AZScienceTeacher

I mean, really? I can’t think of any way that could possibly go wrong.

How about no?

“We were asked to DRAW our school’s core values”—@diet_coke_cabal

“My partner and I had ‘supporting students’ and we drew a bra.”

“We had to take an online course to find out our love language”—@rohrsby

“I did not need to know which of my colleagues prefer personal touch to quality time or acts of service. Seemed more useful in a pre-marriage counseling setting.”

“We were paired with another teacher and told to create an imaginary baby”—@CoffeeWitch420

“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.”

“We wasted half our meeting time playing ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’”—@Physics-is-Phun

“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.”

“Put an emoji under your name on the board to show us how you’re feeling”—@Normal-Perceptions671

“No thank you, I will not.”

“We had to decorate each other like Christmas trees using school supplies”—@vorstin

This is not the festive activity you think it is.

We’d love to hear—have you had to participate in insulting icebreakers? Please share in the comments.

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