Which would you choose between attending a prepaid taxidermy class and teaching low-performing students during the summer?

I feel like I am stuck between having to make two difficult choices. It may seem like nothing to many but to me it is. Here is the story, this summer I was planning to attend a three day taxidermy show and seminar in South Carolina. It was cancelled last year due to the COVID pandemic. They are having the show this year. Having paid for the show and seminars last year already they carried over my fee to this year.

My school asked me to do a summer school class the entire month of June. I inquired about having the 10th and 11th of June off so I could attend this seminar. Their response was they were not going to have substitute teachers available so if I couldn't commit to the entire month they would have to see if they could find someone else to do the class. This class is to address the lowest performing students currently in the eighth grade.

This is a big issue for me because I saw how bad not having the last quarter of the 2019 - 2020 school year affected so many students. So many students came to school this past Fall totally unprepared for Algebra 1. I expect the same situation this school year due to being on a hybrid schedule for over half the 2020 - 2021 school year. Students don't really learn math like they need to on this schedule. I think if I teach this class I can help fill in some of the gaps they will have missed from the past year. To further illustrate the effect of that missing quarter last year, about half the freshmen class failed Algebra 1 first semester, substantially more than a normal school year.

I feel a sense of obligation to do the class if for no other reason than to help my students be better prepared when they walk into the classroom to start the 2021 - 2022 school year in August. On the other hand, I have a duty to myself to do something I want to do with what little time I may have left on this Earth.

I should note that they are going to pay me for the class but that has nothing to do with my decision to teach a summer school class. I don't need the money so bad I have to teach the class; it's because I want to. I'm not rich but certainly not destitute!

My wife says I take my job way to serious but how can't I? That's my nature and the way I was raised. These kids are our future (scary isn't it!) of our country so I feel like I need to do anything I can to help better prepare them. I have lost too many nights of decent sleep over this dilemma. Thanks for listening Rally Point members. Maybe I just needed to vent to someone who might understand where I am coming from! In the end it will work out somehow but right now I don't know how that is going to be!

If you were in this situation, what would you do?