Do Teachers Choose What They Teach?

Quora Question: Do teachers get to choose what they teach or just how they teach?

Is this what I wanted to teach?

It depends. You will or should teach what you are credentialed for.

However, there are factors that can affect what you teach:

1. Specificity-For example: If you are credentialed to teach high school chemistry you will probably always be asked to teach that subject. Why? Fully credentialed chemistry teachers are few and far between so if a school finds one, they will want to keep you teaching that. This is similar for physics and other specific subject areas.

   
   

2. Need-When I was teaching middle school a math teacher left suddenly and there was no replacement. My principal asked me to get an emergency math credential so that I could teach science and math that year. That kind of issue can pop up at a school and so may change what you were planning on teaching.

   
   

3. Curriculum Changes-Sometimes a school district changes course offerings and may need you to teach a different class. For example, I was teaching at a school that decided to add a course called, “Health and Human Biology.” I needed to adjust my curriculum plan for 3 of my classes that year and still teach 2 classes of standard biology.

   
   

4. Student Need-The students feeding into your school may choose different classes and drop others. That will change what teachers teach because of student demand.

5. 
   

How you teach should be determined by you.

However, some schools may request a specific way that you write your teaching objectives and depending on your principal they may want your objectives posted.

If you are doing an effective job teaching and your students are performing well and learning then you will have more freedom in how you teach.

If your students are struggling and your students and parents are unhappy, then you will get more supervision and less freedom re: how you teach.

Final Thought: My colleagues and I have had to adjust what we teach over the years and that does create more work in the short term. Because of that I have taught: Physical Science, 7th grade math, Life Science, Biology, Health and Human Biology, Anatomy & Physiology, Medical Chemistry, Senior Project Class, Biochemistry, Integrated Science II, Integrated Science III, Ecology, and AP Environmental Science.