In Her Voice- Helene Cormier’s P3

Helene is a Technology Integration Coach for the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario with 17 years of experience in the classroom. She worked for 7 years for the French School Board of Edmonton before taking a sabbatical and a huge leap. She sold her condo and moved to Cornwall Ontario without a job. Within 3 days, she has an license to teach in Ontario and found her current employer.

Helene is passionate about the global competencies and creating an environment so students are future ready. This summer, she is going to MIT to learn the new version of Scratch. She’ll also be in Seattle, selected as one of only 3 Canadians going to the PI academy to learn Raspberry PI- though there will be 20 more Canadian educators certified over the year.

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Helene has had many Canadian experiences in her lifetime, and her P3 reflects that. She was born in Newfoundland while her parents were stationed up in Labrador on the Churchill Falls Dam project. She was raised on family work camps close to big dam Projects in Eastern and Northern Quebec. She studied in Montreal throughout her high school years then moved to PEI, where she studied History and Classics at UPEI. "The memories from those four years are still very dear to my heart," shared our guest. In 1997, she moved to Alberta to followed her heart and build the first part of her education career. Helen’s playlist spans her life experiences, and her life has spanned a lot of the country.

Helene referred to all three songs that she brought to The Personal Playlist Podcast as “authentic” and all the artists as important contributors to the music industry. Helene's nostalgic song began with a quest to bring in French music. Her drive was to select a song that had a “lifetime” with her. This artist is just about her age, and she grew up seeing her in concert many times. “I’ve actually met her in person. She’s from an area where my cousins live.” Helene went on to explain that, while she admires this epic singer, “to me you have to contribute…” This artist certainly is a contributor, not only with her inimitable voice or her achievement of becoming the best selling female artist in music history, but in her evolution from being a French singer to becoming a world renowned performer with her own installation at Caesar’s Palace. This distinctly Canadian singer has become a universal star. Here is Celine Dion’s S’il n’en restait qu’une translated as And if there was only one left (I would be that one):

With the segue to another national offering, Helene introduces her identity song. “It’s so important how you surround yourself, Who is around you is kind of a little bit of who defines you.” When she fell in love with this band, she became a person who wanted to contribute and started on her journey to being the best that she can be. During that time out East, she became Helene the Canadian who actually speak French better than English. ”Language wasn't so much a definition of who I was at that time.” She noted this as ironic for someone who grew up in Quebec. This is a Canadian band that Helene has seen in every city she’s lived. “The beat is amazing, and it’s a beautiful song in the sense that it talks about being happy...” She sees herself as someone whose cup is half full, and this song connects to the positive outlook she has every day. “It’s a simple song about taking the simple moments and enjoying them.” Here is Blue Rodeo's Head Over Heels:

Helene refers to this last song as her grounding song and says that it fills her up. She said that it’s like “...earth stops spinning for a second. I can breathe…” She’s listened to this song since the CD first came out and got to see this artist perform this song at the Summer Stage, an intimate venue in Central Park outdoors in the summer. This song comes from this award winning jazz vocalist’s first full length album which won a Grammy for Album of the Year and Best Pop Album in 2002. “This is adult Helene. This is Helene at home, Helene taking a seat and reflecting…” Helene calls it a perfect song; here is Come Away with Me by Norah Jones

Helene is a teacher, collaborator and presenter. She and I first met as panelists on ONedMentors and are both proud members of the VoicEd family. For the station’s Battle of the Books show, Helene defended Angela Duckworth Grit. Regarding the concept, she said that, “Life will throw you curveballs, no matter how good things are...you have to be able to pick up and go.” Helene presented on Collaboration for MADPD and will be featured in the Spotlight Series in the fall. If you want to learn more or connect with Helene, you can go to her website or find her on Twitter

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