Why Hobbies Matter so Much for Teachers (and how they rekindle joy and boost wellbeing)
I still remember the first time I picked up a bow and arrow. It had always looked so cool from afar - but up close, it was complicated. There were so many things to remember all at once. I realised this wasn’t something I’d master overnight. I was going to be clumsy at it for a good long while before I even remotely resembled Legolas.
But in that archery class, there was no audience: just my teacher (actually they were quite a high pressure audience, ha!), the bow, the string, my curiosity, and the desert air. (I took my first classes on a desert ranch in Dubai.)
It was during a particularly exhausting season of work that I realised: this thing I did “just for fun” wasn’t just about fun. It was essential. It helped me switch off. It helped me find joy outside of work. Especially when work dynamics were hard. And most importantly - it was all mine.
When I began to focus on teacher wellbeing, it became clear that many of the conversations circled around big policy-level changes - the important ones:
…better salaries, smaller class sizes, fairer schedules, a shift away from grade-obsession, restoring respect for the profession…
Meanwhile, I saw teachers - myself included - burning out and struggling.
And that’s when I began paying more attention to the quieter, more personal levers of wellbeing. The ones that are more practical. More attainable. More impactful. And crucially, more within our control.
Why Hobbies Keep Coming Up
In the spirit of doing something real and practical for teacher wellbeing, hobbies keep surfacing.
They’re one of those things that often elude busy teachers—but every time I look into what helps people thrive, keeping a hobby shows up as a strong wellbeing indicator.
I know that by the time summer rolls around, the instinct for many is simply to decompress. To stop. To rest.
And I know that hobbies can feel complicated. Sometimes costly. Or like just one more thing to think about after an intense school year—especially if it was a tough one.
But I believe they’re more than a “nice-to-have.”
They’re a powerful support for both wellbeing and teaching practice.
Here are three reasons I think they matter—especially for teachers:
Three Reasons Hobbies Matter for Teachers
1. They exist for your joy
Hobbies don’t need to be useful, monetised, or productive. They exist simply for your joy. And that’s rare in the life of a teacher, where so much revolves around serving others.
2. They rekindle your love of learning
When you take up a hobby, you get to be the learner again - curious, imperfect, absorbed. That personal connection to learning naturally makes its way back into the classroom. It shows up in the way you teach. In the way you speak. In how you empathise with your learners.
3. They build resilience and perspective
A hobby gives you something that’s entirely yours. It reminds you that you are more than your job. It becomes a quiet anchor, especially during the tougher terms.
A Note on Resilience
And on that third point, I found it interesting that the University of Oxford’s Department of Education report on teacher wellbeing lists resilience as one of six key components. It even made it into this nifty circular diagram thing they included in the report:
But, as is often the case with research: the actual how of building resilience is left unclear.
I understand why. Each school, each context, each person is different.
Still, I believe that taking up a hobby, especially one that requires a learning curve or some mastery, is one way to grow resilience on your own terms.
One teacher who joined our Mandarin Hobby Course said she felt totally intimidated by the language. But she chose to stick with it.
And that experience - that simulation of doing something hard and unfamiliar can carry over.
For example….
Maybe, by September, when the same teacher faces something else intimidating—like walking into a senior leadership meeting to talk about pay or role change - they’ll have already been training the resilience muscle leading up to this.
An Invitation to Pick Something Up
As the opening quote suggests:
A hobby doesn’t need a rationale or justification.
So I hope you choose something this summer to pour into… simply because it brings you joy.
For me, I’ll be doing as much archery as possible - even with a bunch of broken arrows. And I hope to teach it to some girls here in Chitral over the next few weeks, too.
What about you?
What might you pick up this summer, just for you?
Source to image reference: