A simple hint to improve your teaching: when you’re writing on a board and you run out of space, you should take time to slowly and completely erase part of the board. It is natural to try to erase the board quickly so you can get back to writing notes, but this is a mistake in my opinion, for two reasons.

First, students need a moment to process your lesson as you teach. When you take twenty seconds to erase the board (rather than ten seconds), you give them a better opportunity to catch up with what you’ve been saying. They can finish copying down the last thing you’ve written, or can think about whether the lesson makes sense so far. Students appreciate this short break just to catch their breath during a lesson.

Second, quick erasing is often sloppy erasing. Do yourself a favor and clear the next section of the board completely of all stray marks. Now you’ll have a clean slate (literally) on which to write. Your students will have an easier time reading what you’ve written if there are no straggling serifs sprinkled throughout nor ghosts of what was previously written haunting the background.

Also, taking a bit more time to clearly erase the board gives you a second to breathe as well. You can gather your thoughts and prepare for the next section of notes you want to write, so you can give the best lesson possible.