Start Over Every Day: How to Stay in Teaching

 In this episode of The Research to Practice Gap, Dr. Helen Flores sits down with educator and leadership coach Michael Fairbanks II to discuss one of education’s biggest challenges: teacher retention. Drawing from his experiences as a teacher, principal, and instructional leader, Michael shares practical strategies for sustaining intrinsic motivation, building mental flexibility, and creating systems that help educators stay in the profession longer. From knowing your community to rehearsing lessons and “starting over every day,” this conversation offers honest, actionable insights for both new and veteran teachers navigating the realities of today’s classrooms. 

Michael Fairbanks II

Resources for Teachers:

6 Intrinsic Motivators to Power Up Your Teaching (this was written for students but can be applied to us as well!)

Educators: Make Every Day a Fresh Start

Knowing the Community

Leveraging Self-Reflection to Improve your Teaching

The Power of Rehearsal: The Most Overlooked Step in Instructional Coaching

Research & Background:

Costs and Benefits of Teacher Retention

Exploring Evidence-Based Practices in Teacher Recruitment and Retention Efforts

Teacher Shortages Fact Sheet

Billingsley, B., & Bettini, E. (2019). Special education teacher attrition and retention: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 89(5), 697-744. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654319862495

Li, X., Pei, X., & Zhao, J. (2025). Intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy as pathways to innovative teaching: a mixed-methods study of faculty in Chinese higher education. BMC Psychology, 13(1), 859. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-025-03177-y 

Malone, H. L. S. (2026). Toward a community centric pedagogy: How teachers’ conceptions of the urban community they work in shapes bidirectional learning. Education and Urban Society, 58(4), 460-486. https://doi.org/10.1177/00131245251404012

Artwork and logo by The Interior Gaze

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Research to Practice Gap, a podcast that bridges the divide between research and classroom practice. I'm Dr. Helen Flores, and each episode I sit down with an expert whose work informs education and translate their insights into practical, evidence-based strategies that you can use in your classroom right away. Today with me I have Michael Fairbanks II. Michael is a former National Teacher of the Year nominee. He has since served as a school principal across both public and private sectors and has led instructional improvement efforts nationwide, partnering with schools and districts to strengthen teaching and learning at scale. He now coaches and develops emerging school leaders through his work with new leaders. His current interests focus on strengthening the teacher pipeline, advancing adult learning and facilitation in education, and building sustainable leadership systems that support long-term school success. Welcome.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Yes, thank you for that, Helen.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

You've done a lot, and I'm excited to jump into all of this. So far, we have mostly had doc students or educational researchers like professors that have talked about their specific research studies and their line of research, but you have a much broader focus with the work that you've done. I'm really excited to jump in and see how we can connect that to pre-service and in-service teachers. What problem in education does your work aim to address?

SPEAKER_02 1:21

I love teacher retention. Um, and and I want to address this through the lens of um intrinsic motivation. And this is something that I've been not just taking a noticing of, but this is how I coach, prepare, push school leaders who are going to impact students. What we do know is there are some barriers that are created through social shifts as well as organizational management, which can look different across our country. Um so um I am currently looking at some of the vast changes that are going on across education um and how it's affecting teachers who really want to enjoy the work.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Yeah, and I think this is a really critical time to have these conversations. I'm in Florida, and so we have, along with the rest of the country, a critical teacher shortage as well as a huge influx of charter schools. So we have somehow at the same time a critical teacher shortage and a surplus of public school teachers as public schools close. And I teach pre-service teachers and they know what it's like going in because some of them are paraprofessionals or what have you. And so a lot of them understand the challenges of teaching, but still go into it. So the teacher retention piece is so interesting, thinking about that piece when the challenges in education are so vast from the smallest system of administration to the state or national system of policy. So uh yeah, I'm I'm excited to jump in. And what first drew you to this line of work?

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Yes, um, and I I'm uh I definitely hear uh about the teacher shortages uh not only in New York State, New York City, um, but across our country. And that's what really uh began to to draw me in um when um when I begin when I was a teacher. I the reality of what uh got me into this is like why are schools good are A schools and why are schools below C schools? And there are many that are C and below. I mean, I'm really talking about in marginalized communities before anything else. That's what got me interested. Some school districts have been operating with failing schools for many years, and there are many people who have changed spaces in those roles in the district, in the schools, from school leaders to teachers, and these schools still operate in a community, they are underserving their community. Why is that happening? And it and it uh really started to bring focus in the school that I was a founding teacher in and became a a school leader, a school leader in. A couple things that I realized. We had the highest retention easily in the city of Atlanta. We did not lose teachers, we only gained teachers, and we're a high-performing school. In reality, when you begin to keep the same teachers, it's not just the experience, but if you think about the students, you are more successful when you have educators who actually know the families and the students and feel empowered in their community, in their school, which you don't feel if you're doing something for one to two years. Real community, real empowerment, it takes years to build that. When you do this work, you gotta have another type of buy-in to enjoy it versus being successful. And so that's what sort of drove me. I want every district to be successful. I want every school to be successful. That's my bottom foundation, right? Because the betterment is for our students, for educators to stay in education.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yeah, and that makes sense. I moved around a bit from schools. I taught for six years and in three different schools in those six years. And one that had to do with like location, I moved, it was too far away. But the second school I left because of the administration. And by the time I got to that third school and was sort of at the end of my teaching career, that really at year six was when I felt like I understood that community dynamic of the school and of the students. And after I left, I thought, like, wow, if if I had stayed, now that I'm understanding this, how much more effective could I have been?

SPEAKER_02 5:10

That that is that is my point, right? Like what I've learned is I really didn't know, feel, or have everything I needed to even understand in the community students until I got years into it, right? And so as we get, you know, closer to the solutions piece, we sort of have to think about the barriers.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yeah. And when I first talked to you, Michael, after we hung up on the phone, I was thinking about a lot of what you said about intrinsic motivation. The sort of nuance here that I'm thinking, right, is like as a teacher, I remember administration started off like the most important thing is to remember our why. And a lot of teachers were really like hesitant to engage in that and they were sort of upset. And it took me a while to reflect on that because intrinsic motivation is gonna fix the system, right? But if you love what you do and want to stay in it, despite knowing all of the challenges that come with it, how you can use intrinsic motivation to stay and to be happy in what you're doing and be effective. Am I getting that right?

SPEAKER_02 6:11

You are nailing it on the head. Uh well said, uh, within that lens of intrinsic motivation, I really start from a place of like idealism, right? Let's think about education and like where we start, being an educator and a teacher, right? There's no fancy dinners and business class flights, no really nice offices and nice meeting settings, none of it. There's there's not any of that. I always start from that place because uh the the privilege you have aware of uh sort of drive you even when you get into the work, right? Um, because in education, it feels like no other occupation. Everyone who has done it says that. And that'll tell you why I say it's an intrinsic piece because you're doing this hard work. There are no perks that look and feel like anything in other parts of career industries. And that is a piece of what how this work can shake you up to say, hey, it will only be two years. It'll be one year. Heck, I'm gonna transfer to another school. Let's just see if it's that, right? When we start thinking about teaching and wanting to stay in it and being motivated in it, there are none of the bells and whistles that drive you in other spaces. So you just gotta go ahead and remove that from where your place of enjoyment may fall. And so, yeah, and there there are even some solutions that I found in the workspace that supported driving it to feel like a corporate space in some senses. We knew it had to be more than just teachers coming to teach. You get a little piece of gear every year, nice lunch every now and then. How more intentional can we be? We want to do the same, except in the education lens. And that changed our lens of how we begin to view teachers and what they showed up to. Some mornings, teachers had off. Some mornings they come to a celebration, they're not going directly to their class. All the things that make you sometimes feel like, well, one, somebody's being very intentional about me.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah. You sound like you were an incredible administrator.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

I'm sure you're I was different for sure.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Your teachers were lucky to have you. So who should care most about this work? Teachers, administrators, teacher educators, policymakers, and why?

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Yeah, I would just lean on anyone involved in like education outcomes.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Because we are just in a unique space where, you know, education is still not put on the forefront. It just goes under the radar. And so just anyone who has anything to do with educational outcomes, I just hope some of these nuggets inspire folks to continue to do the good work because it's a lot of people doing a lot of great work who will never get any notoriety. And also continue to motivate those who want to be in the work, who are joining the work, et cetera. So just, you know, taking care of where we want to see changes.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Okay, so I want I want to jump into this. What practices or strategies can they try to either, I don't know, increase intrinsic motivation, learn about it? What should we know about this?

SPEAKER_02 9:11

I would first start with knowing everything about your community and just understanding, you know, where you are, how it came about, the boundaries set in order to get said students in your school. You'll learn so much more about where they are. Home visits really don't exist anymore. Um, and that used to be an ultra unique space to get to know your community. That first part, you'll begin to start to feel the layers start to come down, right? Because there's already a feeling when you go into teaching, it all feels different for different teachers, but there's an unknown. Well, make something known. The community is the community. It's not gonna change tomorrow, next week. So that uh is the first piece I'll lean into. Um and then uh I just get into safeguarding that it's going to be a person or district that is going to make you a better teacher. You have to kind of uh release that. There are gonna be people who are gonna support you on your teaching journey, who are going to maybe give you some feedback that will support you or support you making changes, a gray level of teachers, or whatever it may be. But in reality, there are so many days in between that, you and that person. And so another thing to get ahead of, uh, make sure you're taking care of those days. I have to find a way to just to self-grow. And so as teachers are joining, you know, uh new teachers, I always tell them, like, there's a true piece about what are your daily like habits that go about being a better teacher. Do you record yourself and then watch it over? Do you just simply know the lesson plan and cycle and can tell me what's your favorite part of it and what's not your favorite part? Because those are some of the things, again, that knocks off those barriers. Now we can now we can actually start with like getting into the piece that is going to support you doing this work. Because remember, when we start getting into a solution of what could what could support given person, there's always sometimes some I live 45 minutes out of this community. I come just teach at a school. And then you have the other piece. Well, I'm actually not as fluid in certain parts of the lesson planning cycle. So I have a gap there. Um, and so if you wrap all that up, I can't even begin to start to motivate myself because I do have true gaps that one, I may have addressed, and then two, I'm waiting for the person to grow me. We gotta just first do bare minimum what school you work at, what it will tell me about the community. Then next part. Hey, whatever training institute you went through, uh let's talk about just the lesson planning cycle, right? Curriculums change, how questions are asked change, depth of knowledge changes, the people, all these things change when you think about teaching and learning. The lesson planning cycle, the only thing that hasn't changed, is actually the most effective thing when you think about teaching and learning. And so, as I said, those two things, I if we can go verse on that, then I can, we can begin to get that intrinsic motivation and begin to talk about, you know, how we can support ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

So this is awesome because one of the reasons I started this podcast was I didn't feel like until I got into my doc program that I was learning things that were extremely important for my growth. And by then it was too late. I knew I wasn't going back to a classroom. I was part of the Council for Exceptional Children. I did my required PDs, I did all of that stuff, but I didn't feel like I had the support I needed to actually grow. And I didn't know how I was supposed to do that. It seemed too complex for me to be navigating research articles and whatever. And professional organizations are well-meaning and they have a lot of resources, but it's really overwhelming when you don't know what you need and you don't have mentorship. So I love these ideas. And I, your community thing hits this right nail on the head. As a pre-service teacher educator, we talk about collaboration and knowing families. And but what does that look like when you have the secondary level? You have hundreds of students. Maybe you don't get to know every family, but you can know the community and know where kids come from. So I really love that piece, Michael. And then the second part, right? Okay, so you're gonna have a mentor that's gonna see you twice a year, and maybe that'll be helpful. Maybe it's not helpful at all. But we can self-reflect. I don't remember self-reflecting often as a teacher. Since I taught kids with emotional behavioral disabilities, we would do self-reflection after we had a crisis that required a restraint. But that's probably about the only time that we did it meaningfully. Um and I love this lesson plan thing. I like that because I thought too identifying one, where you're where you are struggling and engaging honestly in self-reflection about why it's a struggle, is it because you have a skill gap? Is it because you don't like it and you're not putting effort into it? What is it? And then identifying resources just for that. I was immensely blessed my first year of teaching. I had an instructional coach that told me, no question is a stupid question. Come ask me questions a hundred times a day and I will help you. And I took that in. And I can't even count the number of times I was in that woman's office asking her questions, but she kept to her side too, and she helped me every single time. And that was an incredible mentorship experience. I think we need to humble ourselves to ask questions sometimes and admit what it is we don't know help with. That's great advice because then it takes out this, okay. So you don't have the resources, you don't have a good mentor, but I can do these things internally. One more piece that stuck out to me was as a college professor, discussion boards are absolute crap, right? Like everyone now is using AI to write them. They're not meaningful when I did them in college before AI, they weren't meaningful, you know, and and I hate grading them as a professor because I know they're not. So I took all of them out. And so we can't always take everything out, like, okay, I hate teaching writing. Well, we can't take writing out, but if you can identify what it is that also is difficult for you because you don't enjoy it, then it can also be addressed.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

That is exactly what I'm saying, right? What you learn by just looking at this skeleton of this lesson plan and cycle is you're not gonna like part of the lesson. That's where I gotta start sometimes. I didn't like uh at first, like having to model the lesson a certain way, meaning like when you're in primary school, you have to get the language just right to make sure you're being effective as a teacher. Um, and so it took a lot of me going to relearn letter sounds and all the, you know, diphthongs and all things that go with it. And so, you know, when I tell people this, I'm like, I didn't like certain parts of the lesson plan. That's the piece that I knew that I was gonna need the most support in.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Yeah, of course. And I think too, we don't always have good mentors, but we can always ask. I remember one school I worked at, they required a lesson plan, and I taught a K through second class. And so I was supposed to submit lesson plans for every single grade level, every single topic that I taught. And I wasn't writing them like that because I had a mixed class. And so I, at the suggestion of a friend, reached out to all of the grade level chicks and said, Can you guys just email me your lesson plans? And then I approved with my administrator, can I just send you this, knowing that I am not doing quite this, but I'm working on the same skills? And they said yes. And that like immediately slimmed down what I was doing and made my life so much easier at that school. So I love to see like this crowdsourcing. Okay, I don't like this part. What can I do then?

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Yes. And again, the intrinsic piece come from them walking themselves to the water. There's gonna be something you realize that, all right, this is the piece that you dislike. Now you're going where you need, you're already getting better.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Okay, so once we've done this, I know my community, I've reflected, I know what I don't like. Maybe you answered it. Maybe the next step is just finding help. Are are there any additional tips you have?

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Yeah, when I was being coached, um, I was being, I was working at the founding school in Atlanta Elementary School. One of the greatest principals I've ever came in contact with. Coaching wise, they made me rehearse lessons more than probably like ever will ever be required in teaching. So they came from the Northeast. They were very rigid because they were in some of those starting charter schools that just had a different way of going about things. Um and they brought that to where I was. I was also a primary school teacher, making sure you know the letter sounds and you are writing letters correctly on the board. Um, it had to be really up to up to snare. Um, and there are a ton of things to learn if you're coming from a space where you were not a primary school teacher. Um, I had to rehearse a bunch. Um, but what I learned is like if if you really want to improve, hearse. Um, because it's one of the things that I found was really effective hearing yourself teach. Um and so that's what I realized. If I did not rehearse, I cannot do any of the other things. And when you go in the next day, as we learn as educators, there's a there's a there are many things that can happen, many variables that come into play. But knowing your stuff and what you are going to do is something that's in your control. You can't control what students do, you can control the environment, etc. But the piece that you do control is knowing the lesson. What are the things that you do to start into close? If you want to see uh improvement, you have to also be like individually organized. It has nothing to do with the school, it has nothing to do with the districts, what they gave you, what they want you to do. How organized are you? I mean, that starts with having a way that you do everything. Just think about what things you control. So I would ask a teacher like, what do you do at the start of the day? So what you begin to learn is like that self-growth really starts with like placity. What do you do on planning? When your day ends, how do you know it's ended? Is that putting in grades? Is that rehearsing your lesson? What is what are those things? And when you when you get to that space, that's a great space to be in to begin to organize yourself because now you're confident in all the foundational things that will help you. I won't say, hey, you you you all can do this and you all are gonna care. But those things will bring you closer and you can then get it get into the nuances of you know becoming better in the profession or better teacher or wherever you're trying to go with it.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Again, I I only taught for six years, so I guess I don't have a very long lens of of looking back, but but my first year teaching, I found a quote that said, the best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today. And I always kept it by my desk because I knew in special education, in in education in general, I never knew, like you were saying, what the day was gonna bring, what administration might be doing, what families could come to me with, but I knew that if I had my ducks in a row, at least then I could sort of have the mental capacity to deal with everything else. So you're I mean, your teachers are so lucky to have you because I think we sometimes need someone to be like, I know you've been teaching for a long time. I know that you know what you're doing, but let's look at these systems that you have in place.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

How can we simplify it or make it stronger or yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

Yep. I and and um imagine like what your pedagogy shift has to be if like you're gonna last longer. I realize it started with simplicity. Just what's your favorite part of this?

SPEAKER_00 20:20

And let's say you have all these systems in place, but the overwhelm from a particularly hard class or a change in administration or a change in policy, how do you keep up that intrinsic motivation when it gets hard?

SPEAKER_02 20:35

I have one simple answer for that. You have to start over every day. This is very simple, um, and something I did uh prior to even having a family, because as I spar with other people who have families, I don't give out advice. I just say start over every day. Um, you know, uh especially when we're thinking about our kids and being patient, et cetera. It's something you have to start over with every day. From when I was a teacher to going into leadership, you have to start every day or the calluses sort of build. What you think about the profession, what you think about going into work that day. And I believe that is one of the largest pieces of this work is having um a space where it's okay to start over. It's not gonna be a thousand high fives and hugs and gifts. You are not getting a bucket filled in that way. Um, but a way that I always try to support all educators is start again fresh every day. Um, and bringing that mentality uh to your workspace will create that type of environment.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

This is this is really important, Michael. I love this because I think as educators, we sometimes get really stuck in the challenges that we have. And there are myriad challenges that we will never probably overcome in terms of policy, resources, funding, right? And when it's time I tell my students who are getting ready to teach when it's time to go go, I don't think we touch on this piece. Mention self-care, we mention finding support, but I do feel like we could retain teachers a lot long with some of this advice. Sometimes it's time to go, but sometimes I think we we can figure out how to stay longer. Is there any advice you have for pre-service teachers before they go in to prep for some of this?

SPEAKER_02 22:22

That's a great question. I've had the opportunity to have students who uh I taught in elementary school and they graduated and went to Ivy League schools. And uh the feeling that I felt um just knowing that I uh stayed in connection with them uh because I was part of the community, those moments felt just as big as it felt for that family. It felt like that for me. I mean, I never foreseen that ever feeling like that. Because for me in teaching, uh I always felt like my work was unseen. I sort of understood like the humility and gratitude to education, but when that happened, because a really close person did something monumental in my space. And so I will say one thing in education, the faster you can get to like mental flexibility, the faster you'll recognize how awesome it is to be a teacher. When you can move your mind to know you're gonna have to change a bunch of stuff. We all don't like to just change things at the drop of a button. Uh but the faster you can get to that place where it's like, if I change this, this is better. If I sound like this during this part, if I slow down, or if I ask this question, then this will happen. If I group them in this way, then this will probably be a result. Those are shifts that you're gonna practically make, and there are also some things that you're gonna have to personally make. The faster you can do that, the better, the more you're gonna enjoy the work. And that's where I'll really leave it. I want you to enjoy the work because it'll bring all the feelings and things that come with enjoying something. There are some organizational factors that you do not foresee, right? There are some things that you don't even know that's gonna shift a lens of how you're gonna have to do something. So the faster you can know, like I gotta be ready to shift, but also like I'm shifting because I'm changing something per day. Start over every single day. Know those two foundational things that you need to know. Um, and the other piece, like know the community, just know where you're going to work at every day. Um, it's very important. And lastly, just always be ready to change.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yeah, and I I love that the mental flexibility. I think that's great advice and something that new teachers, myself included, definitely struggle with. And I love what you said about enjoying the work because we're not always going to see it right away. We might not see it for quite a bit. But I'll tell you, even as a college professor, when my students send me the email saying that they passed their final Florida teacher certification exam, I am I drop what I do, don't care what time of night it is, and I am sending them that congratulations email. Uh it's it is there is that aha moment. I think there are probably very few professions that get to experience that the way that we do in teaching and the meaningful impact that we do have on our students and their families that goes on well past the year they're in our classroom. I will link in the show notes to everything we talked about, resources if teachers want to jump further. Before we wrap up, is is there anything else? I guess.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

I love new teachers. Um, I love getting in front of teachers who are going to be in the work. Um I love supporting training them and following up with them as the year goes on. Uh I always can show like I did it in the school as a school house. What part do you want me to play in any of these roles? I'll go teach. That's where my rally really starts because I can understand the importance of it. So that's the feeling I'm trying to get back into our work.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Yeah. And this is so needed right now. So thank you so much for for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Uh thank you so much, Helen. We'll be talking soon. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

We will. Thank you for listening to the research to practice gap. If this episode challenged your thinking or gave you something practical to try, share it with a fellow educator. You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook at the Research to PracticeGap. And subscribe anywhere you listen to your podcast so you never miss an episode. If you have any questions, feedback, or would like to be a patron on the podcast, you can reach out to us at research to practicepod at gmail.com. Research doesn't change classrooms, educate you. Until next time, keep reflecting, keep questioning, and keep reading.