Seasoned performers, H.E. Bonner Elementary’s fifth grade students don’t shy away from an audience and last Thursday was no exception.
Because of its demonstrated leadership in providing arts education to all students, H.E. Bonner Elementary was selected by the Arts in Basic Curriculum – or ABC – Institute to host the institute’s spring site visit.
The ABC Institute is cooperatively directed by the South Carolina Arts Commission, the South Carolina Department of Education and the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Winthrop University. Its mission is to provide leadership to achieve quality and comprehensive arts education for all students in South Carolina.
Along with watching some musical numbers from the school’s recent production of Beauty and the Beast Jr., educators were able to perform classroom observations and attend breakout sessions geared toward whether they were administrators and instructional coaches, general education teachers or special area teachers.
“I really wanted it to be an authentic, organic experience of learning at Bonner,” Principal Melissa Willis said. “So other than the logistics and inviting 150 people onto our campus and into our classrooms, it was really just a normal day of learning at Bonner.”
Willis also saw the visit as an opportunity to share with fellow educators how students can learn and grow through the arts at school.
“We explained and shared our journey through a parable where our current fifth graders were our kindergarten seeds in 2018, and with good soil and knowledgeable farmers, we were able to grow those seeds into the blooming flowers that they were today on stage,” Willis said.
HBE’s partial-magnet program was established in 2018 to offer an innovative instructional program to Berkeley County families in the northern area of Berkeley County School District. Its students have the opportunity to experience the arts through arts integration in core subjects, exploratory classes and other arts opportunities not typically found in a traditional elementary school.
HBE is a considered a partial-magnet since it continues to have a traditional attendance zone as well as students enrolled through a lottery system. Applications for the 2024-2025 school year are due March 31, 2024.
“It was important for the adults in the room to hear directly from the kids how the arts have impacted not just their engagement but even their soft skills…their abilities to speak in front of crowds and grow their confidence,” Assistant Principal Ashley Osterkamp said.
Osterkamp added implementing arts integration at HBE was not an overnight success, but a multi-year process grounded in supporting teachers and removing roadblocks.
“It was an honor for us to be able to share with them what we’ve learned from the process,” Osterkamp said.
