How do I teach my subject so students actually learn?

Knowing your subject and teaching it are two different masteries, and almost no one warns you of that before you stand in front of a room. You spent years learning to understand. Now you are learning to help others understand, which runs on a whole different set of skills. The usual trap is teaching the way you think, at the level you have reached, forgetting how it felt not to know. Real learning happens when you meet students where they are, not where you are. That means less covering everything and more checking what actually landed. Try one change. In your next class, stop partway and ask students to explain one idea back to you, in their own words or on paper. Their answers will show you exactly where the learning breaks. Teach to that gap. You do not need to be a natural. You need to keep finding out what they did not get, and that is a skill you can absolutely build.