Back to School Get to Know You

I know….I know….The school year has barely ended and here we are already thinking about getting next year started. I guess we could call this #principallifeproblems? But here we are: no sooner have we finished our end of year data reports, teacher evaluation audits, student study team summaries, PBIS behavior analysis, handbook revisions, inventories and summer requisitions…and we are already on to next year and master schedules, intervention planning, handbook revisions, teacher handbooks, textbook adoption, PD plans…and setting up our staff for a successful, productive and happy school year.

Part of my start of year plan this year involves our first staff meeting. For the past several years it has been your average, run of the mill staff meeting where information is provided, questions answered, and material for the year is reviewed. In the past few years I have had very little staff turnover and we have had a cohesive family like team. This year however is very different in my building, With three staff members retiring, one changing professions, one on medical leave and two changing positions I will be adding 7 new faces to my staff. In my small little Y5-5th grade building, that is almost 1/4 of the staff! As part of getting to know the new people, letting the new people get to know the old people, and to even add some humor in my old people knowing more about my old people, I came up with a couple activities to liven up the first meeting, get some laughter going and ‘get to know you’.

I purposely set up these activities to work with a variety of staff compositions from a group that had worked together for a long time with a new admin, an old admin with many new staff members, to a group of admin and staff that has been together for a while. The questions are silly and obscure enough that even staff members who are besties should have to think about who is who! I also set this up so that a couple different activities could be incorporated from the survey responses. I have used this as an admin new to a building, as well as with an existing staff welcoming new members.

The survey

I made a quick google form with 25 silly and unusually random questions that I will be sending out to each person on staff the week before school starts. Link here, please make a copy for your own use. Once I have all my responses, the fun begins! I developed a variety of activities that can be used in different structures, formally to informally, and over time. My plan is to do one at our ‘back to school’ first meeting of the year and follow up with some of the others over the first few weeks.

Speed ‘Dating’

My get to know you activity for getting back to school involves an element of speed dating and mixer. mMaterials you will need include response sheets, the list of questions, pencils, list of staff member names and assignments (particularly helpful for people who have many new faces to the building), clip boards, timer and a bell.

1. From the survey responses, select the one most unusual/crazy/unpredictable responses per question and list them on a sheet (this is the ‘response sheet’ mentioned above). Leave a space for a name at the beginning or end of the response for people to list who they think that response describes.
2. Arrange two equal rows of chairs facing each other for staff members to be seated across from each other.
3. Staff members will each take a seat with their list of responses and staff lists and have two minutes to talk and try to find answers to the questions…without asking the actual questions themselves.
4. Every two minutes you ring the bell and one row of people moves down the row while the other row remains in their original seat.
5. Repeat this process until everyone in the moving row has moved and returned to their original seat. If time allows, the process could be repeated by taking half of the prople from each row and making two new rows, one stationary and one rotating, and going through the process again.
6. After the discussion part of the game, bring the group back together in table groups and the facilitator goes through each response while the group throws out their guesses until the respondent is identified.
7. Because the answers are short, respondents may have the opportunity to elaborate on the response if needed.

The point behind this game is that in the process of trying to uncover the answers to random silly questions, people are also getting to know and learning about their colleagues. The beauty behind this part of the game is that only 25 responses are given away, leaving you with plenty of humorous, unconventinal information from the other 24 responses to use in future games.

Jeopardy

The next game could be done in place of Speed Dating or could be done as a follow up. In considering use as a follow up it could be played all at once or just a few answers at the beginning of monthly staff meetings. This game creator is free, and allows you to create your own Jeopardy board. This game is super simple to create! Choose six survey questions to create your categories, and select 5 responses that haven’t been uncovered during Speed Dating to create the ‘answers;. Staff then must use what they know about their colleagues to identify “who is….for 200”. Because the games can be saved, you do not need to complete the game in one session. The program also provides you with multiple game formats as well including flashcards, interactice choices and memory.

One of the benefits of using activities like this is they have practical classrom application for teachers for things like test review, close reading activities, and other study skills.

Interactive Bulletin Board

My final activity I will be using this survey for is an interactive bulletin board in my teacher’s lounge. I plan to post all my remaining responses on the bulletin board and teachers can casually guess who they think is who. As correct responses are revelaed, I will post a picture of that person with the correct responses.

Other Get to Know You Activities

• People Bingo– This is a quick and easy get to know you activity that can be done quickly. Make a list of characteristics and attributes about people incluing family structures, pets, hobbies, likes, dislikes etc. Use this list to generate bingo cards here. This website is so easy to use and customize! At the beginning of your meeting, give people a few minutes to walk around asking questions to fill up their card with people who have the characteristics listed on their cards. When they find someone, the match puts their signature in the box. The facilitator then calls out characteristics bingo style until there is a winner.
• Pick a side- This is an easy game where your group has to decide….would you rather? You need a large space divided in half with floor tape and the list of questions found here. Start with everyone on the center and based on their answers they will step to one side or the other. This funny and humorous game lets people see who they have things in common with and can be polarizing in a non-threatening way.
• Rather than- This game requires focus, but is also good for laughs. This is an easy game to set up and conduct because it requires NO materials…(Ahem….talking to you fly by the minute principals 🙂 ) Everyone is seated in a circle and the facilitator tells the group one thing they like to do. The person to the left restates what the facilitator likes to do and then adds what they would rather do. The person to their left states the facilitators activity, the next persons activity and then what they would rather do. This continues cumulatively so that the final person on the right of the facilitator is repeating the entire group’s individual preferences.
• Ready, set, reorganize- This is a good activity that requires teamwork, mobility, and fast thinking. For this game divide the staff in half and make two lines facing each other. The facilitator gives a category and the lines have to reorganize themselves accoording the category in order. The first line to reorganize wins. Some chronological categories could include age, birth month, number of children, number of countries visited, number of years teaching/working in schools etc. Some alphabetical categories include first name, last name, birth city, job title, college attended etc.

For those who know me, you know that I am usually a very goal oriented, Type A, no nonsense, let’s-just-do-this kind of person. In this instance though, taking a little time from the business and of doing business to get to know people, help build a strong work community, and help create common ground, build trust and rapport with in the team, and have a little fun while you are at it is a good way to start a solid foundation for the hard work ahead!