When a student sees a teacher, they think of a person who is focused on teaching 24/7. But what if they are wrong? What if there are teachers who break the status quo? Teachers who do different things to experience all there is in life?

Ben Davis has those types of teachers. They come to school, teach, then go home and work on things other than teaching.

Social studies teacher Joseph Belser has written two books that have not yet been published.

“The Chosen Few is one of the books I have written,” Belser said. “The story is about the president who gets possessed by the devil and it is up to his daughter to save him. My other book is called Origin Story, where the main character is a college student with mind control powers and tries to stop using his powers.”

Belser remembers what made him want to start writing.

“At the time I had tons of ideas,” he said. “In college I would count the number of pages I would write-which would be over 200 pages-and think if I write this much already, why not write something that I enjoy. From then I have been working on and off of it. I do not work on it as often anymore due to school, but when I am finished, I am going to have someone revise it and publish it.”

Besler is not alone in his outside pursuits.  English teacher Bobby Chin is creating a board game that will better prepare him for his golden years.

“My game is called the Great Loop,” Chin said. “The game is like Mille Bored, but it uses an American waterway as a way of transportation. There are four seasons where your main goal is to collect experience and mess with other players too.”

Chin hopes to one day see his game in stores around the country.

“This game started when I was at my friend’s lake house and thought that there should be a lake version of Mille Board,” he said. “From there I’ve been working on it and Mr. Justin Allison is working on the art and when it is all done I’ll publish it on Game Crafter.

“Then when I go on vacation this summer, I will stop by toy stores, drop off demo version and hope to hear back from them. This game will also better prepare me and my wife for when we travel on the Great Loop when we are retired.”

English teacher Joe Tatum creates his own music and puts it on popular music sites.

“I create amateur homemade music,” Tatum said. “To do this I use almost all types of instruments and my home recording studio. When I finish with the final revisions, I make them into CDs and publish them on iTunes and Sound cloud.”

So with teachers doing different and unique things, we can only be inspired to do things that fit us as a person and as a creative artist.

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English teacher Joe tatum helps a student.