Some things I learned as a teacher

1. Students will remember your attitude more than anything else and will often remember something you said personally to them. I have had past students thank me for saying something that I don’t remember, and it very seldom has anything to do with the topic I was teaching. Consider what you say carefully; one of the treasures of teaching is having a student respect you enough to ask you a serious question, whether it has to do with the topic or not.
2. Whatever subject you are teaching is not as important as you think it is. I think most of us got into teaching because we loved the subject, nothing wrong with that! Because of this, though, early on I would give much more information than was needed, because I was so interested in it. One of my graduate school professors gave me some advice which I didn’t take for about 30 years: stick to the basics and repeat them over and over. Esoterica is not worth much in the long run, except to the people who are as interested in the topic as you are, and those are few and far between.
3. Know your subject very well. This may seem strange considering number 2… but knowing your subject means you can come at it from different directions in order to get it across better. Everyone does not learn the same way. Also, if you happen to come across a nerd like I did, they’ll ask you hard questions!
4. Be kind. Students' lives are very complicated and involve many things outside your class. The longer I taught, the less value I gave homework done outside of class… this is scandalous! Realizing how…