Hello! My Name is Hannah Gibson, I am a 2028 teacher candidate in the Education program at the University of Northern British Columbia. I am from Prince George, British Columbia, located on the unceded traditional territory of the Lheidli T’enneh.
Photo taken by Kevin Petersen (2026)
While I have lived in Prince George my whole life, I lived in Peterborough Ontario for three brief years while finishing my Undergrad in Sociology at Trent University. After graduating with my Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in January of 2024, I moved back home and worked as a social work assistant. My time working in social work gave me the opportunity to work closely with children and families from diverse economic, cultural, and geographical backgrounds. Through this line of work, I realized my love for working with children. Having the experience of seeing children grow in all facets of their life is what inspired me to apply for the education program and become a teacher.
While I am not a teacher yet, I hope to make my future classroom a warm and welcoming safe place for my students, where they can grow and learn both academically and personally. I hope to do this by creating positive and trusting relationships with my students.
Although I am only one-month into the education program, I have learned that self-identity is so important in teaching, as we teach our students who we are. Students watch how we interact with them and our colleagues, deal with emotions such as stress, anger, or happiness. All of our actions as teachers are internalized by our students, so not only are we teaching them curriculum, but we are teaching them classroom etiquette, emotional regulation, how to be a friend, and so much more. As teachers, we must know who we are as people, identify our values, and lean into parts of ourselves that we want to teach to our students.
I was lucky enough to have some amazing teachers when I was in elementry school. These teachers took the time to know me as an individual and created a supportive space that nurtured my interests as a kid. My elementary school had a wonderful music program and teacher who fostered my love for music. My grade 6 teacher identified areas I was struggling in academically that had been ignored by previous teachers. She took the time to support me in these areas and gifted me extra her personal resources such as books and flashcards to help my learning at home. Once I become a teacher, I hope to make a difference in my students lives, as my teachers did for me.