Still Moving Mountains- Paul McGuire’s P3

Paul McGuire is a retired educator living in Ottawa, Canada, but he is still deeply engaged and interested in education. Paul is a podcaster, blogger, advocate, and leader. He is a Discovery Education Network (DEN) Star and part of their Leadership Council. Paul is also involved in Climb for Kids and much more. There is nothing tired about Paul's retirement.

Paul’s work with Discovery Education began when he was a principal. “I was looking for ways to integrate digital media, digital content, into a school setting. It is something I was always interested in because I was beginning to see that more and more content was coming out on line that was..interesting...relevant...and adapted really well to the classroom.” After attending summer institutes in Washington and then again in Chicago, Paul was interested in some of their content work and continued working with them. “One of the things I really enjoyed about Discovery, their technology is terrific, content’s wonderful, but one of the things I really enjoyed about Discovery is how affirming they are. After 31 years in education, it became really important to me..to go where somebody is going to support your creative efforts.” Paul continues to work with them because they are, “into connecting teachers in creative ways... and developing really important relevant digital content….”

When he retired, Paul was looking for a place to make a difference, and he discovered Christie Lake Kids. He was heartened by their mission sharing that, “...their major objective is to transform the lives of children….Having worked with kids in poverty and seeing the cycle of poverty here in Ottawa in many communities, to me, that’s the most important thing that a program can possibly do is to try to break that cycle of poverty.” Both he and his wife, Heather, have worked with students who access Christie Lake programming as their only outlet outside of the school. “When I was looking to do something different upon retirement, I wanted to do some kind of a fundraising campaign. I wanted to do something to support that camp. The reason we’re doing a climb, it’s a different way to do fundraising,..where you get a group of people who take on a difficult physical challenges, and you get people to sponsor them.” The model is based on a fundraiser that Paul was previously involved in called Dream Mountains where they climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. His climb this year involves 18 trackers signed up with a goal to raise $20,000 before the end of August this year, and they will be climbing Rainbow Mountain (Ausangate) in Peru through Climb for Kids.

In preparing for his P3, Paul made some changes in his playlist over time. He said, “It actually took a little while...I took a look at the songs that I first sent you and switched them around a little bit...I love music, and it’s always been a part of our lives.” Paul reflected on the changes in his playlist and projected that it would change even more in the future. Ultimately, these threes songs are a snapshot that reflect both place and time. Our guest added, “For me, the best music always tells a story, and it’s even more interesting when you can talk about music and your story or how you connect to that song.” The Personal Playlist Podcast really is about linking music, people and their stories.

When exploring his choice for the nostalgic song, Paul explained that he selected it for the song itself as well as for its singer. While he knew the original song by Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, he really prefers this rendition. “I like the William Shatner version better because he puts such power into the spoken word part here, and just the anger and the angst that comes out; you can almost see him at the microphone just kind of fist pumping in the air as he punches out these different lines there.” In preparing for this, I located a video of the song from 2004, produced by Ben Folds, where Shatner’s voice is interrupted by Joe Jackson. They then alternate and amalgamate into a duet which you can view here. McGuire recounts that this song was less nostalgic than the artist. “I remember watching Star Trek when it first came out...that guy was my hero when I was growing up...he did cool science fiction before Star Wars and everything.” Here is Common People by William Shatner:

Paul’s identity song comes from a Canadian country-rock band, though the story unfolds in an unlikely place. “I’ve always really liked Blue Rodeo and it’s a band that I feel like I grew up with.” Paul and Heather went to university with the lead singer Jim Cuddy, and they have followed their music ever since. “I remember listening ...in the Dominican Republic. When I was a younger teacher... I used to bring kids down to the Dominican Republic, and we would do a one week immersion program where we had a chance to visit the sugar-cane plantations and live with families in a small rural town.” He retold the story of the first year of the trip being unique. “The trip in itself was a transformational experience for me because it was first chance to travel into the global south and see the unbelievable poverty that exists down there. It really kind of turned on a switch.” Hearing this song there had an emotional resonance for Paul as he recalls, “basically being torn asunder by that experience and this song was playing in the background.” Here is Blue Rodeo’s English Bay:

Paul’s light-me-up song comes from a band whose music he likes in general. He describes a lot of their songs as energetic, but finds this one very important. “It’s all about dealing with adversity and how adversity can actually make you a stronger person.” Paul refers to the idea that people face many challenges. especially over a lifetime, and it’s how you deal with those challenges that really makes a difference. Something he adds to his reason for selecting this song relates to a mental health advocate from Ottawa named Chris Nihmey, who is coming on the P3 this Fall, and was already a guest on Paul (and Heather's) podcast . He celebrates Chris’s work and advocacy for mental health as, “giving power to people who suffer from mental challenges.” People need to know that they can be okay, and Paul feels that this song does it for people in a musical way. Here is Fun’s Carry On:

Paul is still involved in the education community. He and his partner, Heather Swail, started a podcast on VoicEd Radio called First Hand Stories. Paul credited his wife with the title for the show and added that, “The whole idea behind it was to find people who are kind of on the front lines in education and other fields and just interview them about the kind of things there are doing.” While the series has evolved beyond education and into other fields, Paul described the show as getting more interesting because of the guests they have had on it. You can tune in or read more from Paul through his blog , or through what he shares on Twitter. Every project that Paul described and the passion with which he shared it reflected his commitment to and continuous immersion in education.