In "Diminishing returns and tripping balls" psychology professor Paul Bloom offers excellent advice on how to be a great teacher. Abridged and arranged to include Bloom's additional commentary:

1. Enthusiasm. When you’re in class, you should act like there’s no place in the world you’d rather be. Enthusiasm is infectious ...
2. Confidence. ...
3. Mix it up. Don’t just do the same thing over and over again, throw in some variety. ...
4. Bring in other people. ... [but this] is risky, particularly for a lecture class. Most guest lecturers are awful (most lecturers are awful) ...
5. Be modest in your goals for each class. The most common mistake of beginning teachers is cramming too much material in any single session. ...
6. Be yourself. Everyone has strength; teach in a way that aligns with what you’re good at. ...
7. Teaching prep can leech away all your time; don’t let it. Say to yourself: Diminishing Returns. Then say: Opportunity Costs. Repeat as needed.
8. A well-timed “Great question. I don’t know — but I’ll find out for next class” is really charming and makes everyone feel good. ...
9. Use specific students as examples in arbitrary ways. ...
10. . ... Every question a student asks is, at minimum, “Interesting!”. If it’s total gibberish, go for something like: “Parts of your question might go a bit too far beyond our topic for today, but one of your points raises something really neat ...” ...
11. Use concrete examples whenever possible ...
12. Many good teachers self-medicate before class, especially if they suffer from anxiety. ...
13. At least for the first class, get there early, and make small talk with the students who are also there early. ...
14. Take notes after class about what worked and what didn’t. ...
15. You have a captive audience that relies on you for your grades. ... Don’t abuse this. ... Be [expletive] professional.
16. If you can help it, don’t swear unnecessarily.
17. [Avoid] having students give presentations in seminars. Most student presentations are awful (of course they are—it’s really hard to give a good presentation; as I said above, most professors give awful presentations) and while the students might get something out of preparing and presenting, it’s boring for everyone who has to listen.
18. ... make sure that every student talks in every meeting of a seminar. ...
19. Remember: It’s not about you.

_{(cf Tufte Thoughts (2000-12-18), Helpful Homilies (2007-09-02), ...) - ^z - 2023-10-09}