Teaching Faux Pas

1.  in a school of 90% latinos, never explain the Pauli exclusion principle (sublevels can only have 2 electrons each) as a car that can have only so many passengers.  "5 people is the max.  you can try to stuff more people in that car, like 7 people if you're going out to a party, or 8 people if you stuff 1 in the trunk, or a few more like if you're bringing in illegal immigrants from mexico."   I caught myself before i actually said the last one.... (but the students already knew where i was going with that...haha)

2.  never draw bohr atoms to explain bonding and only draw a dot for the electrons in each and only 2 energy levels if you are a bad artist.

3.  never try to draw the safe way to heat a test tube over a flame if you are a bad artist.