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Monday 30 May 2016

When team-building got redefined..!

As the new academic year began, we thought it would be a great idea to welcome the teachers back in school, after vacation, with a fun-filled training session. Since across all our partner schools, there were new teachers, we planned a half day of team-building activities.

About the activity:
Teachers were divided into groups and were given certain number ( >50) of balloons, thread and a tape. They were asked to make the tallest tower using the given resources.
It was great fun to see how teachers quickly got onto the task; balloons were being inflated to different sizes and forms. Suddenly, the room started becoming colorful. At frequent intervals, we could hear balloons bursting. The real trick was to build the tower using balloons and tape alone. But teachers managed to do a fantastic job.

The Twist:
Once all the teams were ready with their towers of balloons, they were told that for next five minutes , there wouldn't be any rule. Teachers can do whatever they want to do. At the end of the five minutes, team with maximum number of balloons will win the game.

At most of our schools, we saw teachers bursting the balloons of opposite teams. There were some instances, where at the end of five minutes, teams were left with no balloons. All were burst.

BUT at one of our partner schools, it was different; it was magical. Teachers stood silent for couple of minutes, probably thinking what to do next. And then, as if in a trance, all the teams started moving to the centre with their balloons. They piled up all the balloons together and stood around them in a circle. At the end of five minutes, there was ONLY one team left (everyone came together to form one big group) with a huge pile of balloons.

We had never witnessed anything like this. Have you?

We, at Mantra4Change are so proud to be associated with such teachers and such schools. They epitomize team spirit and redefine team-building.