In many ways, the primary function of a teacher is to organize education. You bring your students together at a specific time and place with specific materials and subject matter. You set routines and create order. Part of being an organizer is to delegate responsibilities and facilitate discussion, but ultimately it is you who determines your classes goals and activities, and who brings together all the necessary parts to make it happen.
A truly effective teacher will not just stand at the front of the class delivering information. He will spend time talking to his students and getting to know them. This is important to understand their needs, their weaknesses and their strengths. Students tend to respond to teachers they feel comfortable with; in this way, the sharing of information becomes more of reciprocal give-and-take between mentor and protégé, where the protégé feels that he is receiving specialized attention and guidance.
The days when students had limited access to information are gone. Now, there is enormous amounts of information on any topic easily available. The job of teacher, then, is not so much to simply disseminate information from a single source, but to equip students with the ability to assess and sort through information themselves. To do this, students have to be able to apply critical thinking, logical analysis and problem-solving skills. They have to be able to ask pertinent questions, to judge the veracity of a source, and to distinguish the emotional from the factual.
This is one of the fundamental rules of successful teaching. Bored students do not behave well or learn well. The ultimate goal of any teacher should be to inspire her students with the desire to go out and learn on their own. You can do this by involving them in the choice of subject matter and activities. Education should be participatory, with an emphasis on projects. Allow your students to pursue avenues of study that they find relevant to their lives and which they can get excited about.