Teach 180: The Non-Teaching Stuff (Day 64)

Teachers do a lot of non-teaching stuff as part of their job - chaperoning trips, supporting student fundraisers, attending theater productions, etc.  Now that we are officially into December, I am in the midst of entering athletes, updating records and entering entries for...swim meets!

When meets officially start, I spend about 4 hours per home meet and 1 hour per away meet on the swim computer, which translates into about 40 hours each swim season.  My compensation this year will be about $300 or $7.50/hour.  Why do I do this?  I don't really have extra time on my hands and the pay is clearly not the reason.  I do it for two reasons and I think these reasons probably resonate with many teachers.  I do stuff like this, because I enjoy helping others and it is hard for me to say no to those who ask for my help.  However, I am thinking of cutting back some in the next few years and this year I created a 20 page manual to train the next Moravian Academy swim statistician.  Hopefully, by the end of the season, I will have trained one or two of the student managers in the nuances of the swim computer.