To teach and what to teach? – That is the question…

It is that time of the year again when I am being asked what I would like to teach next year. To be honest, I have been devoting time to thinking about other things and I am yet to tackle the issue of what I would like to teach. I would certainly like a Year 12 English. I love teaching Year 11 English and would be disappointed to have no Year 11’s at all. Those are the certainties in my mind at the moment. I guess that the major question that I need to answer, for my own benefit and the benefit of the admin staff is whether or not I want to teach Year 12 History next year. History has been hard work this year and it will still be hard work next year because there is so much that I need still to learn. History is such a content based subject that I have spent a lot of this year working on learning the content myself and there is still a long way to go for me in terms of really knowing my content inside and out. So next year, although easier than this year because I know what to expect and I have an idea of the structure and content of the course, will still be hard work because there is so much that I would do differently and still so much for me to learn. The other teacher taking the Year 12 History class is a lot more experienced than me in terms of knowing her content and I feel that perhaps it would be better for the students if she took both classes next year. But I am in two minds. On one hand I feel that History was such hard work this year that it wouldn’t bother me if I didn’t teach it next year. On the other hand I think it would be a shame to waste all of the hard work and effort and planning that I have put in over the year by not building on it next year. In some ways I would love it if the decision was taken out of my hands, but that would be taking the easy way out and I am trying to avoid doing that in my life in general at the moment. So I need to make a decision and as yet are unsure how to go about doing it.
The other uncertainty for me is the new MERC and what sort of a position would be available to me in order to get involved in it. I would love to have some sort of administrative role within the MERC or some sort of position of responsibility that gave me challenges away from the classroom. I was thinking of going back to uni next year to start Honours, but I have decided that it might be better for me in the long term to have next year as a year to myself so that I can take stock of my life and avoid extra pressures on my time. So I am hoping that there will be a position at school that can in some way fill the void left in my life without study. The issue for me is that I am unsure at the moment, as is the administration, of what sort of role would be available in the MERC and so I am unable to make a decision or to know at this stage what the possibilities are for next year. Again the feeling of uncertainty prevails. Such is life in schools though I think…