Growing up, kids often think teachers sleep at their school, since they rarely see them leave. However, some teachers do way more than just teach – whether that is being a parent or having a second job. According to a 2019 survey from NBC Connecticut, 47% of teachers in CT reported having a second job.

PawPrint sat down with three teachers to learn what they do outside of school.

Mrs. Auger

Mrs. Auger has her own Etsy shop, where she designs handmade bag charms, key chains, phone charms, and hat charms.  Before this, she would buy and resell designer handbags and shoes, like Louis Vuitton and Chanel. That brought a lot of stress for her, shipping them, with some getting lost through UPS. “I just got tired of the buying and reselling with all of the scamming out there,” said Auger.

Auger loves her Etsy shop that she started in January. She says it brings out her creative outlet and is more like a hobby for her than a job. She balances her teaching, being a mom, and having her Etsy shop by keeping to a strict schedule. When she packs orders, “It always has to be after my sons in bed, so it gets a little bit crazy,” she said. She starts around 8 pm and works until every order is filled. On the weekends, she builds her stock. “Some days are more busy than others,“ she stated.

She makes lots of custom orders for her customers. She has many different lines of charms. Some are acrylic and enamel plastic beads, where she typically charges less. On the other hand, she has reused or upcycled designer buttons, with real gemstones and 14 karat gold; typically, she charges more.

Auger has plans of expanding her Etsy shop. “I’ll be doing lanyards eventually, and stuff eventually. I have all sorts of ideas for expanding,” she said. She has also started to branch out into jewelry, anything to grow her creativity. She’s on a mission to catch more people’s attention, so she will be at the craft fair this summer in front of Big Y on June 28th. She was also invited to the Christmas arts and crafts fair.

Mr. Zawadski

Mr. Zawadski is a tennis coach. Not only is he the coach for the Morgan boys tennis team, he also works with Madison Park and Rec, which he has led for 20 years.  He is always playing tennis. In the summer and fall, he runs kids’ programs. “We do everything from kids as young as 4 years old all the way through 8th grade,” stated Zawad. During the spring, he used to run the program up until he became a coach.

Additionally, he coaches privately in the fall until Thanksgiving. Most of his clients are new, some have been playing for years, while others have played in the past and are now trying to get back into it. “I also have a private tennis coaching business, where I coach people privately, anything from children, high school kids, adults, senior citizens,” he said.

Zawad has been playing tennis his whole life. “I have been playing tennis since I was like 4 years old,” he added. He liked the fact that it was an individual sport. He also played tennis in high school. He was on our tennis team. “Tennis is one of the sports that you can play your whole life,” said Zawad. He plans to keep coaching tennis after he retires. “To me, it’s the perfect job in the summer, because I like working with kids, and it’s fun working with little kids since I’m used to working with high school kids,” he said.

Ms. Criscuolo

Ms. Criscuolo is a banquet server at the Madison Beach Hotel. For the past three years, she has worked mostly on the weekends and sometimes during the week at night. She has switched from different banquet places, between LaCuisine in Branford, and the convention center in Hartford. “I do weddings, there’s a lot of weddings over the summer, pretty much every Saturday,” she said. She is also a bartender at the banquet and downstairs at the restaurant.

For 20 years, she has always had a second job at some capacity. “I have been a single mom since my daughter was 3,” she stated.

Before this job, she was a United States Postal Carrier for 18 years. She found that the teaching pay was a lot less than she was making delivering mail. 

Crisuolo didn’t want to be a postal carrier her whole life. “Delivering mail was a tough job physically, walking in all kinds of weather, carrying heavy bags. It took a toll on me physically,” she said. So, she eventually realized she wanted to become a teacher, so she went to night school and got her degree, which led to her becoming a teacher and eventually starting her banquet job.