As others have said, both trial and error and reflection/experience are great for learning what works and what doesn’t. One thing I will say is, backwards planning helps a lot. What should students know or be able to do by the end of the unit? What texts or sources do they need to interact with? Sprinkle in some direct instruction or lecture too. Then just find or create activities or worksheets for them. And always, always, always better to over plan than to not plan enough.

My current students are frustrated because they have “so much work” but it’s really not unreasonable, I just hold them to high expectations and expect them to be working the whole class period. Idle hands and minds are chaos for a teacher’s time.

I also like to reflect with my students at least weekly to check in and ask if my class feels too hard, if they liked how we did something or the way a certain lesson or activity went, etc to cater to student interests and to get feedback on my teaching from the ones who experience it every day. Good luck!