Congratulations!

What are you teaching? Where are you teaching? What is your student range?

My teaching experience is very ranged. In secondary school and after that in high school some of my teachers would ask me to teach some of the lesson and i would. I was 12-16 when i did that and was a lot of fun. Then when I joined the army I was first a sergeant and the lieutenant. Army is not only about guns and fitness training. We would teach them all about life from educating history to birth control. After that for years i worked as Computer teacher in private schools. I also taught one special program for lawyers and gave lessons to lawyers. Also, for over 10 years i give free math and physics lessons to poor children. I am proud to say that some of them became Mechanical engineer like me.

Tips. Never insult a student. No matter what they do. Dont guess something you dont know. Dont be affraid to say you dont know something and that you will search for it and tell them in the next lesson. Dont stay at the same spot all lesson. Whenever you are explaining something, pause for 10 seconds to give your students time to digest what you just said. Make jokes. But only 1 or 2 in an hour. Most importantly, show respect to your students. They will return the same back to you.

Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think. - Albert Einstein

Good luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=452XjnaHr1A
This could work:)

Congratulations! May I ask what level you are teaching? If it's K-12, good luck and may the Force be with you!. (Just kidding)

On a more serious note:

* Prepare your lecture/class well.

* Take a deep breath and relax. Center yourself

* Don't be afraid to admit that you don't know the answer to a particular question

* Encourage your students

That's true, bringing a giant with you should help get the children's attention and respect.

astroclay deserves nothing but utmost praise from everyone in here.

Teaching is the most important, and at the same time the most thankless job there is.

I am in awe of him and my appreciation is immeasurable.

Unless you are becoming a gym teacher. If you are you can blow me, because all gym teachers are assholes. ;P

I was a public school teacher for several years. Here's a few pointers:
*Just relax - self-doubt is common for new teachers, but you're way more prepared than you think you are.
*Always over-prepare lessons when starting out. Until you find your stride it will be hard to estimate how long a lesson will last. It's always better to have too much planned than to run short.
*Make a conscious effort to be fair to all students and don't play favorites - kids will pick up on it if you do.
*Teach to all levels and grade to effort as much as possible. You'll get along better with your administrators and it will provide incentive for more students to learn 64 and below may technically be failing, but if you have a class where 40% are failing, you're NOT going to be allowed to fail 40% of the class, so be prepared to be very flexible.
*If a lot of students are failing, you're likely not effectively teaching the material, but just because a student is failing doesn't necessarily mean it's your fault.
*Don't take yourself too seriously. Be willing to laugh at yourself, but don't try to be their buddy, either.
*The most difficult part of your first year will be behavior management. Most kids are no problem, and when they have the expected bad day, address it privately and don't embarrass them in front of their peers. However, there always seems to be about 1-2% of students who are just plain bad and don't belong in a regular school setting. They will take delight in derailing your class. In my experience I often read about them later after they had committed crimes, but nowadays you will be forced to deal with them in your classroom. Cut them off in every way possible. lgnore them whenever they act inappropriately. Don't lose your temper, as it will only make the problem worse. Your responsibility is to educate students. They're not there for that so don't waste stress and effort on them.
*Finally, take care of your health. Your first year is going to be very demanding and it's easy to let yourself get run down. Eat right, exercise and don't let school issues overtake your home life.
BEST OF LUCK TO YOU!

How many times have you been shot? :P

Simulator for training: https://www.gog.com/game/no_pineapple_left_behind

In regards to a few of the questions asked:

I don't want to be too specific, but I teach a course for college credit. It's not the first time I've lectured (I've done my share of that), but it's certainly the first time I've had complete control over the content and direction of an actual class. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous, but overall I am pretty excited about teaching. I certainly have high hopes for my students!

As for the teaching tips everyone has shared, I certainly appreciate the advice! I really like hearing about other folk's experience in the classroom. So if you have more stories, please keep 'em coming!

It might be a good idea to take notes of things like how often you call on individual students to answer questions, for example.

One issue that some teachers have, especially in STEM fields, is that they call on male students more often than female students. You might want to be mindful of that fact. (Maybe take notes on that?)

When grading tests, maybe see if there's a way to avoid seeing the name of the student. (If you have an assistant who does the grading, that assistant, ideally, should not know whose test she is grading.) Doing this should get rid of any unconscious biases that might come up.

(Also, avoid having sexual/romantic relationships with your students. (Of course, I note that Linus Torvalds broke that rule, although it was the student (his now wife) who initiated the conversation.))

Haha. I remember how my teachers were so good at that.

As a jobless person I teach few subjects to few students.
Just be confident and know basics about what are you teaching.

I worked as an English teacher for three years and hated it. Well, in the first year I taught elementary school pupils (4th grade) and they were genuinely interested. I could get creative with the teaching material, and there were no discipline problems. But then I switched schools and began teaching in a secondary/vocation school. That was horrible. Pupils in their most unruly age, totally disinterested, lacking even the basic language skills they should have picked up in elementary school, always acting up etc.

I got away from that as soon as the opportunity presented itself. But I did pick up some valuable advice for maintaining discipline. Some of that I even applied successfully, so in addition to the tips that other people here wrote, I can help with that.

Two of my closest friends are teachers. One of them used to be rather introvert but still wanted to work as a teacher, and he really grew into the role. For them the most difficult part of the job is keeping the student's attention and all the paper-work the job entails.