Power Couple

Two Normandy educators inspire overlooked students and equip them for success.

OBINNO AND DR. KIMBERLY COLEY drive separately to work every day, even though they often end up at the same place. The two educators drive to Normandy School District from their home in O’Fallon, Illinois because of the same goal: to give students the chance to succeed despite what challenges the students may face.

“We are both really busy during the day and drive separate cars in to work,” Kimberly said. “Sometimes I may hear his voice in the copy room but we don’t usually run into each other unless we make it a point to.”

Both Coleys received a degree at MBU in 2015 — Obinno received his Master of Arts in Teaching, and Kimberly received her Ed.D. in Teaching and Learning.

Obinno is in his fourth year of teaching business education for Normandy High School. He teaches marketing and entrepreneurship classes to students in all four grades.

Kimberly has been an area coordinator for the Special School District of St. Louis County since 2014. She is assigned to both Normandy Middle and High School.

Obinno first fell in love with teaching when he taught a high school Sunday School class at Bond Avenue Missionary Baptist Church after he was baptized in 2005, and things just snowballed from there. He loves building closer relationships with the students and getting to know them on a deeper level.

His favorite class to teach, by far, is entrepreneurship. Obinno first taught entrepreneurship during his time student teaching at McCluer North and brought the program to Normandy School District.

“The students get to be creative and just dream and come up with crazy ideas,” Obinno said. “But it’s also a challenge to get kids to dream big, challenge the norm and think outside the box.”

“Some kids just don’t believe they can be great,” Obinno added.

Obinno had a student design more stylish hearing aids that led to her having her own business, and he had another one who designed a “double backpack” that ended up placing in a national competition.

Normandy is in an urban school district and has had challenges with accreditation in the past. Three years ago they only had 10 Annual Performance Report (APR) points toward provisional accreditation with more than 75 points as of the 2015-2016 school year, according to Obinno.

“They’re making progress but they still have a long way to go,” Obinno said. “That’s the struggle of any urban school – you want attendance to increase and bad behavior to decrease.”

“The more you can read, the less trouble they can get into,” he added.

Obinno is sure that they are on the right track and is glad that reading and math skills are improving. That way, he can spend more time teaching entrepreneurship instead of simply preparing students for standardized tests.

Kimberly’s favorite thing about her job is easy to pinpoint – having a positive impact on the lives of children.

“Shaping and molding students into productive citizens and giving them the tools to be successful is very rewarding,” Kimberly said. “And I like that I am never bored since every day is different.”

Part of her responsibility is working with special education students. She finds it especially rewarding to impact those kids who may be a little more difficult to reach.

Both Coleys learned a lot about their field of education during their time at MBU.

The couple both graduated from MBU on the same day in 2015.

“It’s a rigorous program that really does prepare you as much as you can to be a teacher,” Obinno said. “I used to joke when I learned how to be a teacher I did everything but get paid for it.”

MBU provided a firm foundation for Obinno’s future by providing hands-on experience, student teaching and other field experience.

Kimberly also still uses what she learned during her time at MBU daily in her current role. There was a strong special education emphasis in her cohort, and that was invaluable experience for her.

She also met a variety of different people during her time at MBU from different parts of Missouri and that helped her look at education through a different lens.

“I was also taught that even when it is hard, and you get to a hard place — just keep on going,” Kimberly said. “I was working on my dissertation at the same time we had a new baby, and that was an important lesson for me.”

Working with other education students at MBU helped Kimberly learn how to combine experience and ideas to help the students who need it most.

“Even though the faces of the students look different, some of the problems we were facing were the same,” she said. “It was a great opportunity to put our heads together and figure out how to fix the problems in our schools.”

The Coleys certainly stay busy with four kids and their competitive sports schedules, church activities and work. But they have their priorities in order.

“We kind of push each other to greatness,” Kimberly said of her relationship with Obinno. “We put God first, try to be a good example, and provide opportunities for our kids.”

This story was originally published in MBU Magazine: Winter 2017.