My name is Bronwyn McMillin and I am an aspiring Art and Humanities teacher in my first year of UVic’s PDPP programme. My background is in Visual Arts and Gender Studies with a focus on Indigenous Studies.
For me, being a teacher is rooted in a desire to guide young people towards empowerment and wellbeing, and to provide the tools for a wholistic and happy relationship with themselves and the world they inhabit. I believe that experiential and outdoor education, placed based learning, and cross disciplinary inquiry are three vital tools for developing agency in youth. As I move forward in my teaching career, these three guiding principles will help me to shape a teaching philosophy grounded in community, creative problem solving and discovery (personal and shared).
I feel that every youth has a right to an education that challenges them intellectually and nurtures them emotionally. I am particularly passionate about providing exemplary education to small communities, where teachers are sometimes in short supply, and are therefore all the more vital as role models and inspiring educators. It is my hope that by completing this degree, I will have the opportunity to work in rural communities, and I am committed to building school programming in partnership with the community to best reflect a connection to place as a foundation for holistic learning.
Of all the people one meets in a lifetime, chances are one of the most influential will be a teacher. Looking back on my experience as a young person, I am still inspired by the educators who taught me how to think critically and creatively, and moved by those who demonstrated kindness and care for their community in their actions. It is my hope to honour these mentors through my teaching career.
Bronwyn McMillin 