Great article! Definitely agree that engagement raises like crazy when giving something students can do during the lecture.
In my case, it was a Data Science intro course, so having the theory together with Python Notebooks that I shared beforehand was a good way to get them interested throughout the full 3h of each class. As you said, when technical problems arise it's hard to keep an eye everywhere and patch all holes, so creating smaller groups/teams on that case helps, because even if not everyone can play with the code directly, they can follow things closer.
Main point as you said is that a teaching experience is a huge learning experience.
In my case, it was a Data Science intro course, so having the theory together with Python Notebooks that I shared beforehand was a good way to get them interested throughout the full 3h of each class. As you said, when technical problems arise it's hard to keep an eye everywhere and patch all holes, so creating smaller groups/teams on that case helps, because even if not everyone can play with the code directly, they can follow things closer.
Main point as you said is that a teaching experience is a huge learning experience.