The authors: Julie Tollefson, managing editor, University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning, and Celeste Corey, SIM Trainer and MK Consultant, Singapore. This article originally appeared in the December 1999 issue of Strategram, a newsletter for SIM teachers.
It seems some teachers are willing to travel to the ends of the earth, or at least halfway around the world, to ensure strategic instruction touches the lives of students who need it.
Celeste Corey, a SIM Trainer whose "permanent" stateside home is in Mississippi, has spent the last five years traveling throughout Southeast Asia and Oceania, teaching missionary families about the Strategic Instruction Model.
Celeste is the MK (missionary kid) Consultant for the International Mission Board, an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. Her job is to provide educational resources and support to missionary families stationed in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and the Pacific Islands.
Many of the families Celeste works with home school their children, often using small rooms or bamboo huts in their backyards as classrooms.
"Most of these parents are not trained teachers, and they are anxious to give their children a quality education," Celeste said. "Many live in rural areas where there are no extra resources."
Celeste, who learned about the Strategic Instruction Model while pursuing her master's degree at the University of Florida, searches for teaching methods and materials that parents will be able to use successfully.
"I want each student to be able to reach his or her potential and for the family to enjoy the experience," she said.
SIM has been an important component of Celeste's goal to provide professional equipment, resources, and consultation to help meet the needs of MK education throughout her region.
When Celeste began working with these families in 1994, she saw that many of the children could benefit from strategy instruction. The vastness of the region she supports coupled with the number of families she serves and the limited amount of time she is able to devote to a single family proved to be an obstacle to her efforts to deliver strategy instruction to individual students.
"I was not able to stay in one place long enough to do the instructing, so I became a trainer," she said. "This way, I can train mothers, and they can teach their children."
Celeste's innovative approach has proven successful for students and their families throughout Southeast Asia and Oceania. Her ability to work closely with parents to develop customized plans for each student leads to unique learning environments.
"One of the neatest aspects of the home school setting is that a child can be in a particular grade and yet work at his or her own ability level," Celeste said. "In the Philippines, we have an excellent example of that very thing. In 1994, I began working with a young boy who was in second grade but was still trying to learn his letter sounds. In setting up his reading program, his mother and I determined that not only would we work to help him learn to read, but we wanted to keep up his self-concept as well."
Consequently, the student was never "held back" a grade, and he continued to progress in reading at his own developmental rate.
"Because there were no other students in his class with which to compare himself, he did not have to feel threatened or dumb," Celeste said. "In the spring of 1997, he was reading at a level that would enable him to begin learning the Paraphrasing Strategy. I trained his mother to teach him the strategy and got him started while visiting with the family. As his comprehension improved, so did his confidence and motivation."
Celeste's partnership with the student's mother paid off with tremendous learning benefits for the student, as his performance on a recent standardized achievement test illustrates.
"He scored on grade level for reading," Celeste said. "Both his mother and I cried."
For many people, Celeste's life may sound like a fantasy come true: a home in the tropics, island-hopping in the Pacific, the warmth of the sun and the blue of the ocean year-round. The reality, though, can be a little less than ideal for students and their teachers. The region has two seasons: rainy and dry. It's hot all year round. Combined with the sometimes minimal living conditions for some of the missionary families, learning and teaching can be difficult. Celeste has learned to cope with these challenges in some unique ways.
"Once, during the hottest time of year in Thailand, I filled a bathtub with three inches of water and lay in it to take a nap. It was the only way to cool off enough to sleep. I have to admit that my suffering is really not that great. Air conditioning is becoming more common, and many of the families have chosen to air-condition their school rooms. This motivates the students to come to class," she said.
Far more troubling than the hot weather, in many cases, is the hot political climate of the host countries.
"Some of our families live in areas that are quite volatile politically, such as Indonesia and Cambodia," Celeste said. "At times, this makes traveling for home visits difficult. Last year, I was in Indonesia when riots broke out, and I had to leave the country without completing my visits."
More recently, Celeste spent three weeks in Indonesia during the trouble in East Timor and just before the Indonesian elections. During her visit, she sensed growing resentment toward Australians and Americans.
"Yet, I was able to make every home visit I had planned and never experienced any direct hostility," she said.
Strategy instruction for the missionary families begins at home schooling conferences organized by Celeste and two educational coordinators within the region. Each home schooling family has the opportunity to attend an annual conference, during which parents attend seminars related to education and parenting. At the same time, students take achievement tests and participate in group activities not available in a home school setting. The largest conference thus far attracted 39 adults and 62 children. In her five years in this role, Celeste has worked with 200 missionary families.
Until recently, Celeste worked almost exclusively with the mothers of the home schooled children. Last year, fathers became involved in her workshops for the first time. She thinks fathers are realizing that even if they never teach a class, they do have a significant role in setting the tone for the home school.
During the home schooling conferences, Celeste presents an overview of the Strategic Instruction Model to the entire group of parents. Strategy instruction then becomes more personal as Celeste follows up with home visits to each family. During the home visits, she is able to identify specific strategies appropriate for each child and then teach the parents how to use the strategy.
During a March 1998 conference, for example, Celeste met with one family concerned about the amount of time a son spent completing his correspondence schoolwork. Celeste suggested ways the parents could help their son get organized and become a strategic learner.
"I followed up this fall with a home visit," Celeste said. "His grades were good, but he was falling farther behind in his schedule. So, I suggested that he learn the Assignment Completion Strategy."
Celeste was able to remain with the family long enough to work through the Controlled Practice Stage of strategy instruction and to teach the student's mother how to help him continue with the strategy.
"The student mapped out his courses for the rest of this semester and began putting the daily schedule into practice," she said. "I am checking with them through e-mail and both student and mom report that he is staying on target. This means that he will be finished with his coursework in time to enter 10th grade next fall when his family returns for a year of stateside assignment."
Working alone, as Celeste does, under harsh conditions in a position that requires extensive traveling for most of the year could take a toll on anyone. Fortunately for Celeste, she has developed a terrific support network.
"My mission organization provides a very good support system, and I have developed some close relationships with many of the mothers with whom I work," she said.
In addition, Celeste may have company in her role soon, although consulting with her co-workers may require even more traveling. The International Mission Board is looking for more individuals to fill positions similar to Celeste's in other regions served by its missionaries.
Despite the challenges, Celeste sees the good in the work she's doing and the lives she's changed.
"I love watching the parents gain confidence in teaching their own children and seeing the MKs who are struggling beginning to make progress and improve their self-esteem," Celeste said.
"There are several families that have been able to stay in the field and complete the task to which the Lord has called them because they were able to get help when they needed it. There are also several students who have gained a lot of confidence and continued to persevere in the face of great difficulties. Some of these students have now graduated and are succeeding in college back in the U.S."
Not only has Celeste changed the lives of others through her work, but the work has changed her life, as well.
"I certainly would never have dreamed that I could be traveling all around Asia or that I would be considered an 'expert' in anything," Celeste said. "It is actually a little scary, but I've come to realize that I don't have to have all the answers. What I need most is to be a good listener and to allow God to guide me and the parents."
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