This study sought to discover the crucial elements that make beginning teachers effective and lead to their retention in the field. While previous studies have approached these questions by gathering statistics, we pursued a case study approach based on open-ended, in-depth interviews of new teachers (1-5 years of experience) identified as effective English language arts K-8 instructors. We found some results to corroborate previous studies and some additional and surprising insights that have been overlooked. The most important contribution of our study is the addition of teacher's voices; sometimes poignant or uncertain but always enthusiastic, these voices give substance to theoretical concepts of effective teaching.