my version of transparent, collaborative leadership...with a Teamann twist

Great culture doesn’t start in August: A Summer Challenge for School Leaders!

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Summer of Connection challenge poster for school leaders focused on building school culture and staff relationships during summer breakI love a checklist. A calendar. A way to SEE, obnoxiously, what my goals and plans are…
It also helps others see what I’m thinking and help hold me accountable, 😉
What if you had a calendar like this that helped prepare YOU for the next school year/quarter?
Ideas to add?
  • Read one leadership book (need a suggestion?)
  • Call a staff member just to check in
  • Send 5 appreciation texts
  • Visit a community partner
  • Meet with a student leader
  • Handwrite 3 thank-you notes
  • Listen to an education podcast
  • Take one day completely off work
  • Have lunch with another principal/leader
  •  Identify one thing to stop doing next year

Not thinking “you” centric? Do you have a goal in your campus/district improvement plans that focus on community and stakeholder partnerships?

You could partner with local businesses and share out in your campus/business socials! This is a great way to create momentum and have documentation that can be added to your plan.

Staff get stamps/checkmarks for sharing pics:

  • Visiting the library
  • Attending a city event
  • Supporting local restaurants
  • Visiting a museum
  • Shopping locally
  • Attending a school sporting event
  • Walking through a market/vendor fair

You could solicit gift cards or lil’gifties from those community relationships to give out in August from those who particpated.

Love “Leading with Appreciation”? What if you and your team of leaders spent the summer thinking of relationships through that lens…on purpose?

Every square is an intentional act of encouragement…these obviously shouldyou, your team, and ideas that reflect KNOWING your team…

  • Text a former student/family, just to check in
  • Thank a custodian/operations leader
  • Write a note to a teammate
  • Send your superintendent an encouraging note
  • Leave a positive online review for a local business
  • Deliver a Sonic drink to someone
  • Mail a card to a retired educator
  • Encourage a first-year teacher
  • Pray for a coworker
  • Recognize someone publicly
  • Surprise someone with their favorite snack

Looking to build STAFF capacity/connection??

Create a virtual poster that your teams can connect to and check off while they are out and about!

  • Have coffee with a coworker
  • Attend a community event
  • Visit a local small business
  • Read a professional article and share a takeaway
  • Send a handwritten note
  • Meet a new staff member for lunch
  • Volunteer in the community
  • Attend a ball game
  • Take a picture wearing school spirit gear
  • Recommend a book to a colleague
  • Invite someone to join you for breakfast
  • Celebrate a teammate’s accomplishment
  • Take a selfie with teammates spotted in the wild

Culture doesn’t stop in the summer, it just allows you to be MORE intentional with your time and priorities…

At the heart of  how we want leadership to be seen is helping people feel seen, valued, and connected. Small moments of connection often create the strongest foundations for culture…building a strong culture doesn’t start when teachers return to campus. It starts in the small moments of connection, appreciation, and community that happen long before the first day of school.

If you’re looking for ideas to strengthen your school culture, improve staff morale, or create a more connected campus community, I’d love to connect.

Schedule a conversation: https://calendly.com/amberteamann/20min

I’d love to hear what’s working in your district and share a few ideas that might help.

Hope you’re reading this poolside!
Summer sunN &

 

What’s next: Leading with clarity and appreciation

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For the past 25 years, I’ve had the opportunity to serve in public education in ways that have shaped me deeply as a teacher, a campus leader, and most recently at the district level.

I’m proud of the work we did with the team I built over the past 6 years:

  • Strengthening and stabilizing district infrastructure to support reliability at scale (<1% downtime for the end user thanks to redundancy!)
  • Supporting the district through significant growth, including the opening and operation of 8 new campuses and facilities (I’m like a blue print professional now!)
  • Building and developing a strong technology team, focused on service, responsiveness, and continuous improvement (<
    24 hour ticket response time!)
  • Expanding systems and support structures to meet the needs of a district that nearly doubled in size (please see the team of 5 that turned into the incredible team of 15)
  • Improving support processes and response times for staff across campuses and departments (tech talks, campus visits, student advocacy, oh my!)
  • Leading initiatives that aligned technology, operations, department SOP’s and instructional needs in practical, meaningful ways (operations playbook, automaticity of defined systems, automations galore!)
  • Creating opportunities for team growth and learning, including collaboration and field-based experiences with other districts (hosted ETx Tech meeting, tech team field trips, walk about Wednesdays
  • Maintaining a focus on efficiency and responsible resource management, ensuring systems were both effective and sustainable (systems that require amber teamann to microsmangae aren’t great systems!
  • Built and maintained a cyber security presence that was manageable b/c of our “security” incident that we handled, addressed and moved past withoout signifigant district cost (or newspaper headline!)

But that still didn’t ever address where my heart truly was… #iykyk

Leadership is less about what we build, and more about how we support the people doing the work.

Click To Tweet

Recently, I stepped away from my role at Crandall ISD.

It wasn’t something I had mapped out or planned in detail. But it was the right time to pause, reflect, and create space for what’s next.

At the same time, I was incredibly honored to be named this year’s recipient of the 2026 TETL Grace Hopper Award,  recognition that means a great deal because it reflects the kind of leadership I care most about: thoughtful, people-centered, and focused on impact.

So what now?

I’m taking this moment to reset and also to be intentional about the work I feel called to continue.

That includes launching Amber Teamann Consulting, where I’ll focus on supporting school systems and leaders in:

  • strengthening teams
  • improving systems
  • and leading with clarity in complex environments

It also includes continuing to speak and work with leaders across Texas and the U.S. through the Lead with Appreciation framework because I believe, more than ever, that how we lead people matters.

If there’s one thing this transition has reinforced for me, it’s this:

Strong systems matter.
But strong leadership, and how we show up for people? matters more.

I’m grateful for the relationships, the lessons, and the opportunities that have brought me here.

And I’m really looking forward to what’s ahead. 🙂

Supportingly and excitingly and as always,

Have you joined our Facebook groups? Are you ready for FAB FRIDAYS IN FEBRUARY??

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Don’t forget we also have:

Principal Productivity Group  <– Click to join

Over in the productivity group, we are sharing tips on saving time doing everyday things. Lots of suggestions for grocery shopping made easy and meal planning!
Hope your world is moving along! What’s keeping you up at night?

 

 

TECHnically yours and celebration ready,

Amber

Checking in our principal groups…are you hanging in there?

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You have almost made it to the end of 2020!!! I know this is true because we are getting ready to shut down one of our Facebook Groups and re-open the HOLIDAY group.

If you are a principal, assistant principal, director, and or district administrator then this email applies to you! You are getting this email because you might be in one or both of our PRINCIPAL Facebook groups.

Staff Motivation and Appreciation – Click here to ANSWER questions and join if you are a campus administrator.

Principal Productivity – Click here to ANSWER questions and join if you are a campus administrator.

If you are already in one or both of these groups, when you click JOIN GROUP you will automatically be added to the HOLIDAY GROUP without having to answer the questions!

SATURDAY OCT. 31st the Staff Appreciation and Motivation group will be ARCHIVED until Jan. 1st. YES! You will still be able to access it and see it, you just can’t add anything to it. You can only add to the HOLIDAY group.

One Bazillion Holiday Ideas!!!

There are already a bazillion ideas for the holidays in the HOLIDAY group. You don’t even have to think about the holidays! Just scroll the group and BOOM!

I’m confused?

If you are completely confused by this PLEASE reply/comment and ask me!  I am confused most days this year, there has been a lot going on in my world! (at some point I’ll blog and document all those changes, :))

Alrighty then?! Let the holidays begin!!!

 

Appreciatively sharing &

 

 

 

 

*** Are you looking for a COMPREHENSIVE tool to help you tackle ALL your appreciation needs? We wrote a book about it!!

5 Undeniable Reasons to Join the Secret Princi-Pal Gift Exchange

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It’s back!! One of the most fun things that MM and I have ever done is this principal gift exchange!

I’ve shared her post below. Come play with us!

 

It’s a secret principal gift exchange! What started as a small event between 22 people has grown into a national secret gift exchange. School leaders from all over the United States and Canada exchanged gifts in celebration of principals everywhere.

Since this event has grown to over 400 school leaders, my online principal BFF Amber Teamann decided to put together a blog post on how this gift exchange works. Even with hundreds of players, this is the easiest secret pal event ever. You can even use this with your staff!

Before I share the undeniable reasons you should join, let me be frank. The success of this exchange lies in YOUR hands. We can’t MAKE people send and do. But it sure is fun to watch it happen!!

Let’s get started!!!

Reason #1: All the cool kids are doing it.

Usually, we don’t get caught up in FOMO. However, this is super fun! Is there anything better than gifts? (FYI – My “Language of Appreciation at work is…..GIFTS! Buy me all the things.)

Last year this event received national attention from Elfster. Elfster showcased our exchange in their blog. Obviously, you want to be a part of this epic journey this summer.

Reason #2: Learn a super cool gift exchange app.

I mentioned Elfster. You are not going to believe how easy it is to be a part of this secret pal gift exchange. Our past members have gone on to use Elfster for personal and/or family gift exchanges. Have you ever wondered how to do your annual Christmas gift exchange online? Elfster is the app that’s going to solve all your secret pal problems for life.

Reason #3: Make new friends

Principaling is hard. We could all use more principal friends. What better way to make principal friends than to buy each other presents?

More than likely you’ve never met or heard of the person you will be paired with. Your secret princi-pal is going to fill out an online wishlist and profile so you can get to know them. By joining this event you will be forever connected to a supportive and fun group of school leaders.

Reason #4: You GET presents!!!

Like I mentioned above, my language of appreciation is receiving gifts. For those of you who know me or heard me talk about the survey my staff completed, you know how much I. LOVE. GIFTS. Maybe this is why I started this project. I need gifts.

Finally, as much as I love to receive gifts, I enjoy giving even more. GETTING gifts makes me feel good. GIVING gifts not only makes ME feel good but the person receiving the gift feels great. Win, win!!!

So how does this work? Below are the rules.

Rules/Shmules!

  • Principals, Assistant Principals, Central Office preferred. Other people may sign up. However, we try to stick to school leaders.
  • VOLUNTARY – This is a fun end of the year celebration for principals. Boy, do we need an end of the year celebration this year! Once you sign up you are agreeing to purchase a gift for your secret principal. However, we cannot force anyone to do anything.
  • If you are not able to send a gift, you forget, or you change your mind and do not want to play. YOU need to reach out to your person and let them know.
  • The spending limit is $35 + shipping. You are welcome to spend more or just a bit less. Try to keep in this range. If this is too much please do not sign up.
  • Download the app “Elfster” or sign up online. All sign-ups will happen digitally!
  • Exact exchange title is “2020 Secret Princi-PAL Gift Exchange”
  • The spending limit is $35 + shipping. You are welcome to spend more or just a bit less. Try to keep in this range.
  • Create your wishlist! The app Elfster allows you to create a wishlist that your secret principal can see and order from. We recommend you choose about 20 items they can pick from.
  • The past two years most principals have ordered directly from the Elfster app. It orders straight from Amazon. You do not necessarily have to go out to shop and mail your gift. However, I think sending a fancy package is fun and I usually do it that way:)
  • Mailing gift cards are also an option.
  • This year there is an option to choose if you are willing to ship outside the United States.

Important Dates…

 

  • June 19th is the LAST DAY to enroll. This is a hard stop! The app automatically draws names the next day and we will not add any more participants.
  • July 17th is when your secret principal should receive his/her gift.  In other words, you have about a month after you receive our principal’s name to send your gift.

Hopefully, I have covered all the rules. Use the comments section of this blog to post questions and/or suggestions so everyone can benefit.

 

Hope to see you there, princi-pals!!