Flight Instructor reported Alternator failure after incorrectly resetting circuit breaker.

Narrative

We had just finished our maneuvers and I wanted to give my student an abnormal scenario with an alternator failure. I remember a previous instructor of mine pulling the ALTR circuit breaker to cause a warning message to pop up and then reset it back to normal. I did the same; except when I pushed the breaker back in; there was a spark and a little bit of smoke like two hot contacts touched. It was completely my fault and I shouldn't have done that; nor will I do it again. That is what the simulator is for. We descended quickly to get some airflow and were about 5nm from ZZZ so we decided to land on [Runway] XX and assess the situation. I opened the cabin door and got some fresh air in and didn't see anything out of the ordinary other than no ALTR. We departed back to ZZZ1 and I pulled the Non-Essential breaker to reduce electrical load. We then made a normal entry and landing back to ZZZ1 where I then wrote it up as a discrepancy in the aircraft book.My lack of turning the ALTR switch off before re-engaging the circuit breaker.To prevent this in the future; I would like to see something like this brought up in a CFI meeting and also me not messing with any electrics or systems in the actual airplane. Saving that for the simulator would be safer. I have definitely learned my lesson and it will not happen again.