The amount of time a teacher spends in school is about 1,080 hours out of the 8,736 hours in a year. Those hours do not include the numerous hours spent before and after school prepping or the hours at home grading assignments and responding to students’ emails. Teachers spend a lot of time in school, but what about the time not in the school.
Outside of school, teachers live their lives just as anyone else would. They have hobbies, sports, families and an out of school life. At the school, there are many teachers with many different styles of lives and hobbies when it comes to the time they spend outside of school.
For math teacher Caleb Marasco, he spends his time in the arts. This art isn’t drawing, painting or coloring, but the art of music and theater.
As a math teacher, Marasco teaches students the lessons they need to learn to succeed in his class and classes further in their careers. Outside of school, he is able to teach anyone lessons they can use outside of school. He does that through music and theater..
Marasco found his love for music at a young age doing musicals as a freshman in high school. He continued on through high school but ended in college.
“I did them [musicals] in high school, and I started in ninth grade,” Marasco said. “I came back and started working at Altoona, and my first show back was ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’ I got involved with theater again after six years of not doing anything.”
As he began getting back into theater, he bought a guitar. Once he got his guitar, Marasco taught himself how to play.
He didn’t only play for himself but for other people.
“I started calling places and asking, ‘Can I play here?’ and started playing places, and kept playing those places,” Marasco said.
He began to write his own music.
“I like to write music that is almost like a story,” Marasco said. “It tells a story and has a deeper meaning behind it, rather than just writing about something random.”
Marasco enjoys playing for himself, but his main enjoyment comes from helping others.
“I hope my music has a positive effect on some people which is also a similar reason to why I teach. I like to try and have a positive impact on others,” Marasco said.
While Marasco’s hobby involves other people, some teachers have hobbies that are more personal. For history teacher Jacob Wilt, he spends his time outside of school running.
Wilt became interested in running two years ago. He started his running journey by participating in a local YMCA 5k.
“I was so unprepared for that; I was starting a little bit of a resurgence in a fitness journey,” Wilt said. “Obviously, I didn’t train for it at all, but I was really inspired by the people who were there and the people who felt like they could handle it and were handling it very well. I got really motivated to do better on the next race and to really start developing that [running] as a hobby.”
From there, Wilt’s passion blossomed, and he started running and training on a regular basis. He wanted to find something to help him in his journey.
“I found some things online, like run clubs and things that I’ve become a part of that have helped,” Wilt said.
For Wilt, this time is his alone time.. He feels as if running is his time to clear his head and not have to focus on anything else.
“It gives me a moment to think about nothing else except for running,” Wilt said. “There are some runs where I’m fully in my head. Runs where I am reflecting on the day and running.”
Even though running is a personal sport for Wilt, he puts his time towards a cause. Next May, Wilt will be partaking in the Pittsburgh Marathon. As he runs, he will be running sponsored by an organization.
“I am running for the Homeless Children’s Education fund through the city of Pittsburgh,” Wilt said.
Teachers’ hobbies aren’t always a solo act; sometimes they involve others or even a crowd. For teachers Jesse Frailey and Daniel Harber, they share their long-lasting hobby with patrons of their business.
Frailey and Harber own Snake Eyes Gaming that sells board games, trading cards and mini figures. This store also offers in-house games available for individuals to come in and play.
Frailey has always had a spot in his heart for games.
“I’ve always been a nerd,” Frailey said. “I’ve always liked playing games, video games and card games.”
Harber found the shop before becoming an owner. He would spend his free time at the gaming shop visiting the store and events held. That lasted for a fraction of time until the owners decided to expand.
“I would go out here and there for events,” Harber said. “There were new owners that bought into it, and they needed to expand, to have more people involved to help run the store, and I was chosen as one of the people to be an owner.”
While Frailey and Harber make a profit from the store, the real thing that comes out of it is the community.
“It’s the community; that’s what our shop is really big about,” Harber said. “We’re all about just helping [the] community and bringing people together to play games and have fun. They can relax and just have a stress free environment, get together and have a good socialize.”
Being a part of this community is something both teachers enjoy. They both grew up experiencing an environment strong about games. Although it is different from their teaching jobs, it doesn’t mean it requires more out of them.
Frailey has a background of business. He was a business major and teaches business education. Although it has helped him get into where he is now, it is not the only option.
“I am a business major,” Frailey said. “I do business education, so a lot of that has come in handy, things like marketing or just general management has really helped. I think anybody could start a business if they wanted.”
A lot of times, students only see teachers in school. Outside of the classroom, all teachers are different, and each have their own hobbies. Having a diverse population among teachers not only allows students to share something in common with their teacher, but allows them to relate and see the teacher as a human being, not a person who only assigns work.
