How School Leaders Can Keep New Teachers

Hi!

Hello… School Leadership Rockstars! 🎸

I hope that you had a great weekend and found a moment to recharge before diving into another week of beautiful chaos that is school leadership. Whether you spent your time catching up on sleep, tackling that never-ending to-do list, or pretending emails don’t exist for 24 hours, I salute you.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about new teachers. The data on teacher attrition is alarming, and let’s be real - every vacancy in our building is a time stealer. We spend hours interviewing, onboarding, and scrambling for coverage when we lose a teacher, yet too often, we aren’t putting that same level of urgency into keeping them. If we don’t get this right, we’ll be stuck in an endless cycle of hiring and hoping. And hoping is not a strategy.

That’s why I want to focus this week’s email on how we can support our newest educators in a way that actually keeps them in the classroom.

Enjoy.
Mike 🍏

Here’s What I’m Thinking

We all know teaching is tough - especially in those first few years. The learning curve is steep, and without the right support, even the most passionate educators can feel like they’re barely treading water. As leaders, we have a responsibility not just to hire great teachers but to keep them in the profession, thriving and growing.

When we invest in meaningful support for new teachers, we’re not just helping them - we’re strengthening our entire school community. Ensuring that every teacher has the tools and confidence to succeed is one of the most impactful things we can do to improve student outcomes and sustain a positive school culture.

Why This Work Matters

As school leaders, we invest an extraordinary amount of time, energy, and resources into recruiting and hiring the right educators for our schools. Yet, without intentional support, we see too many promising teachers leave within the first few years.

Retention is a Priority: Teacher turnover is costly - not just in financial terms, but in the stability and continuity of student learning. Every lost teacher means lost relationships, lost progress, and a disruption to the culture of our schools.

Classroom Management is the Deciding Factor: Many new teachers leave because they struggle with classroom management, not content knowledge. They don’t need more theory; they need more practical, real-world strategies and immediate, useable feedback.

Sustainable Support Creates Stronger Schools: When we support new teachers effectively, we don’t just retain them - we empower them to become instructional leaders who, in turn, support and strengthen the next wave of educators.

What Does This Look Like in Practice?

Conduct Frequent, Low-Stakes Classroom Walkthroughs

• Visit classrooms weekly (or more often) with the goal of coaching, not critiquing.

• Provide bite-sized, actionable feedback teachers can implement immediately.

• Focus on one or two key areas for improvement to avoid overwhelming them.

Implement Real-Time Coaching

• Offer in-the-moment support through whisper coaching, modeling strategies, or stepping in to assist.

• Reinforce effective practices and help build teacher confidence.

Establish Peer Mentorship Programs

• Pair new teachers with experienced mentors for judgment-free guidance on classroom management.

• Encourage scheduled check-ins, collaborative lesson planning, and classroom visits.

Facilitate Immediate Debriefing and Reflection

• Create structured but casual opportunities for new teachers to reflect on what’s working and what’s not.

• Use quick five-minute post-observation chats or a shared document for logging reflections and advice.

Offer Classroom Management Bootcamps

• Provide ongoing professional learning focused on practical strategies rather than theoretical frameworks.

• Include modeling, role-playing scenarios, and troubleshooting real challenges.

Encourage Video Reflection and Self-Assessment

• Have teachers record short segments of their instruction for private review of mentor discussions.

• Help them analyze engagement, instructional clarity, and classroom control.

Establish Clear, Consistent Behavior Expectations

• Support new teachers in setting behavior norms from day one.

• Provide classroom management playbooks, behavior expectation charts, and scripts for redirecting student behavior.

Build a Community of Support

• Foster an open culture where teachers feel comfortable seeking help.

• Host regular “New Teacher Check-Ins” to share struggles and successes in a collaborative environment.

The Bottom Line

If we don’t address this now, we will continue to lose talented teachers before they ever have the chance to thrive. We need systems of feedback that are urgent but not punitive - supportive, not evaluative. Our new teachers don’t just need encouragement; they need real, tangible support that empowers them to take control of their classrooms and stay in the profession.

What’s one thing that you can implement this week to better support your new teachers?

Let’s do this!

On A Recent Episode of The Principal School Podcast…

🎧 Want to dive deeper?

If today’s email hit home, check out these two episodes of the podcast: How Principals Can Help Their Teachers Thrive - where I discuss practical ways school leaders can create the conditions for teacher success and How Principals Support Their Teachers Matters - where I lead the conversation about why the right kind of support can be game-changing for teacher retention.

Please take a listen, and let’s continue supporting those doing the work! 🔥