Teacher shortages, like the one schools face today, are not new. Periodically over the last 50 years there were fewer teachers available than were needed, and the response was primarily to step up recruitment efforts and issue temporary teaching credentials to those without qualifications. Three things are new however: (1) The requirement that teachers in all schools be "highly qualified" (P.L. 107-110, 2002); (2) the realization that it may not be teacher recruitment that is the problem in staffing the nation's schools, but teacher retention (Ingersoll, 2003); and (3) growing evidence that, like every other problem that plagues the nation's schools, the problem of teacher retention is most severe in high poverty and other hard-to-staff schools (Darling-Hammond, 2004; Darling-Hammond & Sclan, 1996). In this lecture transcript, the author discusses the problem of teacher retention, then turns to focus upon the characteristics of the new generation of teachers and how this new generation is and is not like the previous generations. The author then examines why people stay in teaching, and explores what she thinks it will take to retain teachers over the long haul in today's labor market, and in the face of the extraordinarily complex and multiple demands today's teachers face. In presenting these ideas, she employs a variety of tools: (1) Recent research; (2) Classroom vignettes; and (3) Examples from grade levels, schools and subject areas in urban rural, and suburban schools. To illustrate points, the author uses statistics as well as individual teachers' writing and research, excerpts from interviews, and group discussions. She also draws on her own experiences as a teacher educator, working in urban areas, and as a part of urban teacher education programs for nearly 30 years. She uses this and a mixture of illustrative and supporting material because she believes teachers can and need to learn about other teachers and teaching from many different sources that cross contexts, time periods, research paradigms, and ways of knowing.