The Call Me MiSTER® (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models) program is working with the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities to create space for the arts in classroom curricula. Leadership and students in the MiSTER program are working with the school’s outreach team, which provides services to every South Carolina county.
MiSTER is an award-winning teacher recruitment and retention program with a 25-year track record. This partnership is part of ARTS-PREP, a new initiative of the Governor’s School’s Office of Outreach to develop programming specifically for pre-service teachers. This partnership is funded by a grant from the Hilliard Family Foundation.
Kellianne Floyd, assistant director of outreach for the Governor’s School, said it has been refreshing to work with young future leaders in the classroom. She hopes that MiSTERs gain a new perspective on the role of the arts in the classroom in their current and future teaching.
“To see the excitement and energy that the MiSTERs have for learning new skills and embracing the arts in an educational setting reminds me why I wanted to be a part of the education profession in the first place,” Floyd said. “I am thrilled to see what they will do in their future classrooms and how they will encourage their future students to use their creativity in the arts in their spaces.”
The partnership originated when Daniel Spencer, Clemson Call Me MiSTER site coordinator and director of community partnerships, reached out to the Governor’s School to introduce the MiSTERs to arts education strategies that support dynamic learning environments.
Spencer describes the ensuing work as symbiotic: MiSTERs learn best practices for their own teaching, and the Governor’s School can make a long-term investment in arts education by providing professional development for future South Carolina teachers as part of its mission to serve as a resource to teachers and students statewide.
Governor’s School teaching artists, such as Thurayya UmBayemake, led the MiSTERS in a multi-day workshop that introduced them to beginner-level drama strategies that support literacy efforts in elementary schools. This approach connects the actors’ basic skill set—creative use of body and voice for storytelling, cultivation of imagination, and working together to build cooperation and ensemble development—to reading and storytelling. UmBayemake said MiSTERs eagerly “dove into” the materials, and she enjoyed seeing how their own backgrounds and history informed their teaching.
“Learning the students’ backgrounds and fields of study was inspiring, given how unique each individual is and what experiences they are bringing with them,” UmBayemake said. “I am happy to know that they will be taking some form of our offerings into their future as teachers.”
The Governor’s School will continue working with Call Me MiSTER during the MiSTER summer internship and into the next academic year. MiSTERs are developing skills that are usually only acquired by certified teachers post-graduation, giving them a head start on these best practices in classrooms and allowing them to become familiar with the resources offered by the Governor’s School in advance.
MiSTERs certainly came away from the experience with a new outlook on the use of arts in the classroom. Ari Hall, a sophomore MiSTER majoring in elementary education, said the experience helped her try this approach, even though it was outside her comfort zone or “looked scary.” Instructors helped alleviate that fear by demonstrating variations that could be adapted to students’ skill levels.
Davez Winters, a junior MiSTER majoring in secondary history, said it quickly became clear that some “small” classroom approaches can make a big difference. He found the concept of pivoting valuable because it allows for thoughtful, small adjustments to lesson plans that help develop “connection, responsiveness and genuine change” among students.
“I believe one of the most powerful pieces of the drama session was the deep understanding that our goal is never to change who kids are at their core, but rather to create a safe, open space where they can truly flourish and become the best versions of themselves,” Winters said. “That’s at the heart of Call Me MiSTER’s mission, to nurture authentic growth and self-discovery.”
The SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities is committed to the growth of arts education in the state. As part of the school’s mission to serve as a resource to all teachers and students in South Carolina, the school offers a comprehensive and ever-growing series of outreach programs designed to bring together artists, educators, community organizations, and students. These opportunities seek to match available resources with the needs and interests of schools and partners statewide.
As a state-funded, public, residential high school, the Governor’s School gives artistically talented students from across the state the opportunity to receive pre-professional training in creative writing, dance, drama, film, music and visual arts. The school also offers overnight and immersive summer programs for middle and high school students.
