team building activities for teachers

10 Engaging Team Building Activities For Teachers

by

Teachers constantly work to improvise students, their knowledge, and understanding of the subject matter. While they know about each other’s expertise and subjects, Creating a sense of responsibility by being a part of a team by sharing different teaching methodologies, cracking jokes, and finding solutions to common problems encourages productivity and helps relieve work stress. Getting your teaching team, non-teaching staff, and students together to create memories, and foster connections can lift moods and ignite enthusiasm. 

Team building activities for teachers range from sharing their stories to interacting through games. Such activities change the aura of classrooms as teachers are then filled with zeal and support from their colleagues.

Hence, In this post, we’ve listed certain team-building activities for teachers that can make them feel more confident and become great team players.

Importance of team building for teachers

Teachers often share their educational thoughts and experiences. However, team-building activities help them go beyond the teaching environment by nurturing relationships. They can also become a team player by training new teachers and display a sense of belongingness by understanding each other. Below are the reasons why you should consider team-building activities important for teachers.

  • It helps teachers become more creative and find innovative ways by communicating with others
  • Team building activities help teachers understand each other better thereby creating energy of support and appreciation 
  • It promotes a healthy school culture with unity among teachers
  • Teachers can not only understand each other’s problems but also provide valuable information on the same
  • Team building creates a common ground to put forward suggestions, problems, and reviews on difficult matters.

Team building activities for teachers

1. Code Break

Teachers are always busy solving different queries and questions of students. Now is the time to engage these teachers in different puzzles and trivia questions. The code break game is an opportunity for teachers to bond together and work collaboratively.

  • Prepare a set of puzzles and tricky questions.
  • Now, build a team of 2 or 4 teachers together. Give a trivia question to each team with a time limit of 2 minutes. 
  • Whichever team solves the puzzle in 2 minutes, gets a point. 
  • The team with the highest number of points at the end wins the game.

Such an activity not only builds team-building capabilities but also encourages teamwork, patience, and cooperation between each other. This way, teachers can also understand each other’s perspectives and thoughts on a certain subject matter.

2. Meet and Separate

Teachers belonging to the same industry share some common emotions and perspectives. This game is perfect for teachers to know each other better and share things in common. All you need to do is give a paper and pen to all teachers participating in the game.

  • Initially, all players will list down five things about them. It could be: I love history, I have great cooking skills, I have two kids, I like to drive every day, etc.
  • Once they have listed 5 things, start with music and each player has to find and make a pair with another player and find at least one thing in common. For example, two teachers have to find the same love for history.
  • Once they’ve found the pair, give them 30 secs to write another 5 things about each other after knowing them
  • The game ends when all players are paired together with at least one thing in common.

 This activity helps teachers share a common emotion with everyone thereby encouraging team value at large.

3. Human Bingo

Sure that you have played the number Bingo multiple times. Here we are talking about a human Bingo, one of the fun activities for teachers. In this activity, you need to create a human bingo on paper and distribute it to the others. To make it enthusiastic, you can let teachers draw the human bingo from the board. 

Let’s say the human bingo has thirty different boxes with a characteristic trait of all teachers. The boxes can have the following content:

I am left-handed, My birthday month is June, I love to play guitar, My mom cooks delicious cakes, I own a pet cat, I like to hit the gym, My name has seven letters, etc.

  • The teachers are now required to keep a watch on other teachers.
  • On the paper, they need to mention the name of a particular teacher that matches the particular trait.
  • Start the music and let teachers enjoy the beats.
  • Once the music stops, they can go around and interact for 30 seconds with other teachers to find the answers.
  • For example, one of the boxes in Bingo reads – I own a pet cat. If it is this particular science teacher who owns a cat, players need to write her name.

This way, teachers start knowing each other better while also playing the role of a helper during the activity. A teacher might know the answer or might have to go around to find them. It’s fun and easy to play with multiple teachers while building communication between them.

4. Puzzled by the Puzzle

Jigsaw puzzles are highly used in teaching, playtime, and educating children. In this game, you need to arrange jigsaw puzzles for the teachers. Let’s say that there are 4 teams including 5 teachers on each team. Now, have 2 different puzzles for distribution. For example, if two puzzles define a forest theme, the other two should define a different theme.

  • In this game, you need to mismatch certain parts of the puzzles before distribution. 
  • The teachers would initially think about solving the puzzle quickly. 
  • However, later they would realize that puzzles cannot be completed without exchanging certain pieces from the other teams. 
  • Teachers need to interact with other teams and get the piece to complete their game.

This activity enhances communication and sparks a sense of belongingness. When you group teachers from completely different departments, they get an opportunity to bond well and act as a strong team.

5. Join Arms

This is a simple yet innovative activity for team building among teachers. It helps teachers find a common ground for their problems and experiences with others.

  • To begin the exercise, one team member stands up to speak about their professional background with the group (education, influences, best teaching moments, experiences with students). 
  • As soon as someone utters a similarity to themselves, they leap to their feet and link arms with the speaker. 
  • The person who leaped up then speaks, beginning with their shared trait. 
  • One of the other professors will stand up and link arms with another one as soon as they discover a point of commonality, and so on. 

This may be done using personal and professional information, such as interests, origins, or favorite childhood experiences. The activity continues until all participants have joined arms. 

6. Paint the Canvas

Teachers think individually and have different creative aspects. This activity is ideal to enhance teamwork and explore their creative capacities. The paint the Canvas activity needs you to arrange a huge canvas, different painting colors, and the same size brush for all teachers.

  • In this activity, make all teachers sit in a circle. In this activity, a blank canvas has to be randomly painted by teachers. 
  • The painting canvas has to be passed on from one teacher to another for the painting process. 
  • Basically, a teacher will be given 1 minute or 40 seconds to think and paint something on the canvas. 
  • Once the minute is over, the same teacher passes the canvas to any random teacher, not necessarily in the same sequence of the circle. 
  • Each teacher will be given the canvas at least once to complete the painting.

This activity helps teachers understand the importance of collaboration and some teachers might also resonate their thoughts with others. It encourages them to think out of the box and make it perfectly painted instead of it being painted by numerous other teachers. It fosters a problem-solving environment while taking responsibility for the situation.

7. Appreciation Cards

Just like many other things, this game is sure to lift moods and set an environment of appreciation. Teachers deserve appreciation and this activity is perfect to trigger their empathy for others. In this game, you need to arrange plain placards and a pen for all teachers.

  • Now, teachers need to look at all other teachers and decide to write about at least 2 people. 
  • Instead of writing something funny, teachers should write something good and unique about other teachers. 
  • They can write about other teachers’ teaching skills, grooming habits, communication skills, problem-solving capabilities, or charming personalities. 
  • Ask teachers to be specific. 
  • Mix all placards in the bowl and pick one after the other. 
  • As you read out statements, the entire group starts guessing the name of the teacher who belongs to that statement.

The person who has written it should later agree or disagree with the answer decided by the group. This activity helps teachers know each other better beyond their common interests and teaching skills. It also helps create a sense of appreciation and acknowledgment thereby boosting energies for everyone.

8. Illustration Challenge

This is a classic game to involve teachers from different departments and tap their creative skills. You require a whiteboard, a marker, and a few chits to play this game. The chits should have names of objects, animals, movies, or places. Chits can have different illustration details including, sky, universe, plant, school, truck, or something that interests all players.

  • In this game, make different teams of teachers from distinct departments.
  • Each team can have 3 to 4 members for the game to begin.
  • One member of the team picks a chit and tries to draw the illustration on the whiteboard.
  • The other members of the team have to guess what’s drawn within a set timer.
  • You can set the timer to be 2 minutes if the drawing takes time or even set it to 1 minute if the chits have easy illustrations to be drawn.

This game promotes teamwork as all members are equally responsible for winning it. Teachers also communicate with other departments and learn their ways of explaining through illustration. It builds trust and enhances a fun-learning atmosphere for everyone.

9. Passing the Hula Hoop

Holding hands, the teachers need to form a circle and pass the hula hoop around each other while maintaining hand contact. Try to do this task more quickly each time you repeat it.

  • Try and make a connection with your team members.
  • The hula hoop must be passed from one member to another, not breaking or falling. 
  • This is also a great game to enjoy if you are a teacher of special children. 

This can make them gain focus and concentration. They also learn to act in a team and help others to pass the hula loop for a joint victory. 

10. Let’s Form a Square

Teachers will enjoy this fantastic team-building activity! While all wearing blindfolds must utilize their communication abilities to see which group can take a rope and construct the best square. 

  • The game is about listening to your team members and enjoying the game. 
  • This game is played with five people on each team. 
  • Firstly, you need to form a square with your eyes blindfolded.
  • One team member will give the instructions, and the others need to follow that player.
  • The team that is the quickest to form the square wins the game. 

This helps in creating a sense of trust and also makes a bond within the team. You get to enjoy listening to others and following their orders.  

Conclusion

Fostering relationships among the instructors is one of the most important aspects of creating a healthy school culture. The development of connections between instructors will promote more cooperation, enhanced trust, improved communication, and tremendous success. These team-building activities help you create a productive team and a more uplifting school environment. 

These activities create a collaborative environment for teachers to connect with others, discuss, invite open communication, and engage in a challenging atmosphere to get the victory. Find out ways to reward them, and this will further help in bringing them together and enjoying the sessions.

Leave a Comment