Supporting New Teachers
A How-To Guide for Leaders
- Lynn F. Howard - The Leadership and Learning Center
Foreword by Lisa Parker
What are you doing to sustain new teachers?
Fifty percent of new teachers leave within the first five years of teaching. Why? Surveys cite paperwork, discipline, communication, and feelings of isolation. But exiting teachers say lack of support from the administration, specifically the principal, causes them to leave the profession.
Today’s educational landscape requires administrators to balance management and instructional leadership. While many understand management, creating a supportive environment that builds capacity and fosters positive communication isn’t so intuitive. This guide provides leaders with realistic and simple-to-implement strategies that support new teachers. Every chapter includes:
- Stories From the Field -- features common challenges and practical strategies
- Administrator’s Role -- frames solutions within job function, current trends, and research-based practices
- Self-Reflection -- guides action planning with checklists and worksheets
If leadership makes the difference in keeping new talent, get this guide to stop the new teacher exodus.
"Lynn Howard reinforces the fact that what we do every day to support teachers, specifically new teachers, impacts student learning. The self-reflection questions in each chapter provide an opportunity to honestly reflect on current practices as an instructional leader. Building on your own individual strengths and challenges in providing new staff support through self-reflection will provide the tools for the development of a realistic plan of action to support, develop, and retain new teachers."Dr. Lena Marie Rockwood, Assistant Principal at Rumney Marsh Academy
Revere Public Schools, Massachusetts
“I wish I had this book my first year as an Assistant Principal."
Lisa Parker, First Year Teacher, Assistant Principal, Principal of the Year
Bertie County Schools, NC
"Lynn Howard reinforces the fact that what we do every day to support teachers, specifically new teachers, impacts student learning. The self-reflection questions in each chapter provide an opportunity to honestly reflect on current practices as an instructional leader. Building on your own individual strengths and challenges in providing new staff support through self-reflection will provide the tools for the development of a realistic plan of action to support, develop, and retain new teachers."
“Lynn has provided a wonderful guide for all principals to follow while working with our new teachers. There are specific “stories from the field” that we can all relate to and reflective questions to end every chapter. The book provides terrific suggestions for nearly every aspect of a new teacher’s acclimation to a school. This is not a “one size fits all” book, but a book that makes you thinks about how we all help our new teachers become more a real part of our schools.”
“I wished I had this book my first year as an Assistant Principal. It is very hard to focus and do the job with fidelity. I find myself not able to read Supporting New Teachers: A How-to Guide for Leaders continuously. I discovered that each chapter must be consumed like the mini chocolates. Eat a few chapters at time, to savor the taste and enjoy moments of opportunities to grow and learn as an educational leader."
"The strategies in the book help leaders take teachers beyond the theory into the actual reality of day-to-day teaching. As a beginning teacher, I lacked the confidence and experience necessary to manage a classroom of children. I attribute my success to the support I received from my principal."
"Supporting New Teachers: A How-To Guide for Leaders provides a basic set of directions designed to help leaders support the efforts of new teachers, addressing the problem of some fifty percent of new teachers leaving the discipline within the first five years. Studies show that paperwork demands and isolation contribute to the exodus, but so does lack of administrative support. This manual offers information on the types of support that make a difference, gathering stories from the field with discussions of how administrators can make a difference in new teacher success. Any in a position to help will find this filled with specific ideas for improvement."
