Becoming- Catherine Tang’s P3

Catherine Tang is a teacher with the Limestone District School Board. Most of her teaching has centered around integrated arts, but this year she’s doing something a little different and has taken on the role of a Grade 7/8 Guidance Teacher. She is someone who loves to blur the lines between subjects while helping her students connect with each other and the world beyond the classroom. She enjoys design, books, and travel, and getting an Apple pencil this year has changed her sketchnoting life forever.

The guidance teacher role that Catherine has taken on is new in Ontario. She works alongside intermediate students as they explore their interests and skills, and she’s become very familiar with the online tool myBlueprint. Right now, she is in the midst of supporting high school course selections for the Grade 8’s. She meets with teachers, co-plans with them, and organizes events to help students learn more about different opportunities. “In this role, I see part of my position as being just exposure, exposing them to different options. We’re not asking them to pick, at grade 7 and grade 8, what they want to do for the rest of their lives. We’re just helping them to figure out what works for them and what some potential opportunities would be.”

When preparing for her P3 with several months’ notice, Catherine had a lot of time to think about her song choices. Having to choose three songs, according to our guest really forces you to think about what matters to you. “ This process was really interesting because it forced me to curate this musical experience for somebody that tells a story about my life.”

Catherine's nostalgic song is a choir song. The music for the song comes Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite “The Planets”, with seven different movements to represent the various planets. The melody for the song comes from “Jupiter” and then the words were written on top of it. “I picked this song because when I was younger, starting in grade 1, I was part of a children’s choir. I was in it through Grade 12, and we went on international tours.” The choir rehearsed for 2-3 hours every Saturday with performances throughout the year, and every few years they would go to a choir festival somewhere in the world. She has travelled to LA, Hong Kong, Europe and Florida, and this song was from one of her last tours when her choir went to Hawaii. “It’s an opportunity that, I think, really molded my understanding of the world.” Catherine selected this song because choir was such a big part of her childhood. At festivals, they would have their own repertoire of songs, but this song was one from the Festival Choir where choirs from across the world would sing together, in four part harmony. Homeland by Gustav Holst and arranged by Randall Stroope is one such song:

Catherine's identity song is one that feels so intimate. It was introduced to her by her now husband, Kelvin, when they were still dating. Catherine decided to settle in Kingston after her final year of Concurrent Education at Queen’s, as it was where her then boyfriend was working. After two days of supply teaching, she got her first LTO. She really struggled with it, so when she left the position, she was sure that her dreams of being a teacher as well the plans for the rest of her future were gone for good. Kelvin put this song on for her, and Catherine felt the hope and belief in their relationship and in her career that turned things around. This song helps her believe that despite having a rough start, she can continue to grow in her teaching and look back with gratitude to the people who helped support her to get to where she is. “For me, it’s a song about overcoming and thriving, in work, and in relationships, and in life in general. Here is Jason Mraz’s, I Won’t Give Up:

Catherine’s pick-me-up song is inspirational music. “This song is the one song that I knew for sure that I was going to pick when you first asked me to be on the P3.” It’s one of her favourite worship songs and one that she has played on repeat, over and over again. “We sort of live in this age where a lot of how we feel depends on external circumstances, and I think with faith and with having this assurance of God’s love, it really gives me peace, even when things aren't going well.” Here is My Hope is in You by Aaron Shust:

Our guest began to deeply understand the “personal” aspect of this playlist podcast as she reflected on her experience on the show. Catherine said that the only thing missing was a shout out to the Spice Girls because it was the first tape that she had ever purchased for herself.

You can find Catherine on Twitter @eduscribblings. She is an intermittent blogger on her site scribblingonthewalls.wordpress.com. Catherine is also a frequent panelist on the OnEdMentors Show and an OEMConnect Mentor. She will presenting at this year’s #MADPD on Financial Literacy, and she dropped some exciting news while on the P3. Catherine has started her own podcast called Becoming and not just because she’s reading Michelle Obama’s memoir. She got the idea when she started her guidance job, realizing how many occupations there were out there, and she was curious to explore all these different pathways. Through her show, she reaches out to people who she thinks are doing interesting things. They talk about what they thought they were going to be when they grew up and about their journey to where they are now. She has recorded four episodes, so we should be seeing it as a new offering on voicEd Radio very soon.