Dream School Reflection

Valarie Burrell, Rena Ingram, Valerie Scott & Jonathan Winn

The Infinite Possibilities Magnet School (IPMS), for grades Pre-Kindergarten through
12th grade, is the product of our Dream School collaborative project. The process of creating
IPMS took immense research, time, dedication, and effort. Though difficult, our hard work
created a well-rounded center for teaching and learning that caters to those that are gifted and
advanced. Our four group members currently teach in all three levels of K-12 education. Thus,
we had a unique lens on the importance of creating a dream school at each grade level. Although
it would be more time consuming, we decided it was pertinent to create a school environment
that can give constant and continuous rigorous instruction to children throughout their entire K-
12 education. If we could create a school that shaped the educational minds of the brightest
students for their entire K-12 education, the possibilities of tapping into their potential is
limitless. With this ambition in mind, we set out to provide a school that would strengthen the
knowledge, skills, and characters of the gifted in South Fulton County.
Scholars must have a wide background in areas such as technology, critical thinking,
innovation, and communication, in this highly competitive and fast-paced society. (Eckstein,
2009) To ensure our school encompassed those skills our group made an exhaustive list of the
aspects of education that deserved our time and attention. The list included but was not limited to
the curriculum, program design, and the social emotional needs of our scholars. While every
aspect of a school is important, we thought it best to focus much of our efforts into ensuring that
our school’s curriculum was not only appropriate for gifted scholars but was manifested out of
the most recent and relevant research available.
After lively discourse and research presentations, many options for curriculum design
were brought to the table. However, one stood out amongst all the options as catering to gifted
characteristics the most: International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. In elementary and middle
school, IB curriculum offers scholars the opportunity to get real world exposure and hands on
experiences. As we know, early adolescents have a developmental need to achieve a degree of
agency in curriculum implementation and thus engage meaningfully in real-life activities.
(Dowden, 2007) Thus, we decided to implement the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle
Years Programme (MYP), and Diploma Programme (DP) of the IB program with fidelity at
IPMS, and students at the high school level will also be introduced to advanced and honors
courses, as well as AP course offerings. Moreover, our previous Curriculum Model Presentations
assignment showed that the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) challenges and engages
academically talented students by developing talents in all students, providing a broad range of
advanced enrichment, and providing advanced follow-up opportunities based on strengths and
interests. We felt it was important to introduce this as the foundation to our overall curriculum so
that we can ensure the best learning outcomes for all of our scholars. Ultimately, with the
collaborative model framework and delivery service approach, we felt confident that the
foundation of our school would reach all learners.
Once we settled on a program and curriculum model that we felt were in the best interest
of our learners, we then moved on to creating the physical space for our scholars. While picking
the physical space of our school was the most exciting part of the project for our group, we
remined aware of how it was also important for our scholars. Research suggests that students
need to be comfortable to learn best. (Zannin, 2008) That includes ergonomic seating and other
furnishings, space, ample daylight, lots of fresh air, and well-designed artificial lighting and
acoustics. The designs chosen were not only visually appealing but conducive to learning.
Ultimately, the chosen building designs aimed to make children feel at home and comfortable in
their environment so that learning can be at the forefront of their minds instead of
uncomfortableness and uneasiness that often leads to achievement that falls below the curve.
The final aspect of our presentation was choosing the descriptors, mission statement, and
funding criteria. This process was relatively easy for us as we ideas we built appeared to feed off
of one another. It was fun choosing the colors, mission, and funding because our group members
work well together. Lively debates about parent involvement and the motto stemmed from our
30+ years of combined experiences and beliefs as educators and stakeholders.

Presentation Analysis & Reflection

Our presentation to the board of directors was a fascinating experience. It was
exhilarating to share the passion, vision, and goals of something we had to put genuine time and
effort into creating. Our process to creating the actual presentation was to give a very high key
overview of IPMS – one where you not only heard and saw our vision, but felt it as well. Given
the fact that our school was very detailed, we felt it best to try and curtail our presentation to no
more than 10 minutes as to not overwhelm the board. While this was an ambitious goal, we went
into the presentation confident we could make this happen.
After a group debrief of our presentation, we agreed that one positive aspect of our
presentation was how appealing we made the experience for the “Board of Education”. We
featured Katy Perry’s “Firework” as an introduction to our presentation to highlight how we
view our students, we took turns speaking and sharing our personalities, we made a visually
appealing PowerPoint, and we included pictures that were awe inspired. The impact of this
action was increased engagement from the board which was evident by the virtual chatroom
comments and unanimous praise throughout our presentation. Additionally, there were many
follow-up questions that truly highlighted their engagement. The Board was obviously impressed
with many aspects of our school; however, there are always areas of growth and improvement.
After deep reflection, an area of growth that all of our group members agreed upon was
our time management. During the planning of our presentation, we set a goal for the presentation
to be no more than 10 minutes specifically due to the virtual setting, however, our presentation
took much longer. Our excitement and need to provide clarity made us go over our projected
time and the negative impact as a result of the length of our presentation created a waned
audience attention span after the first 15 minutes which was evident by some of the questions
asked to us by the board at the end of the presentation. Many of the questions asked were about
content covered toward the end of the presentation, but it was overlooked as attention to detail
decreased while the length of the presentation increased. To improve our time management, it
may have been prudent to record portions of our presentation. Specifically, the portions that were
lengthy and more intricate such as the program models and physical space. Additionally, we
could have practiced our presentation more to ensure we could stay within the time limit we set
for ourselves.

Final Comments
Overall, our group was very happy with what we were able to produce with both our
Dream School and our presentation of it. As a whole, we felt that creating a dream school was
beneficial to our development as teachers and educational leaders. This opportunity allowed us to
gain a deeper understanding of our own values as it pertains to education. Not only did we have
to envision our utopian school, but complete research to justify our beliefs. Having a group with
four participants forced us to have critical discourse around the educational framework in which
we operate. An interesting aspect of this project was that we created a utopian school in the
landscape of our imperfect school district. Fulton County Schools is filled with restrictions that
are mandatory, historical, and difficult to surmount. While these restrictions are generally useful,
at times they can stifle creativity and doing what is in the best interest of our scholars,
specifically those who are gifted and advanced. This Dream School presentation has empowered
us and energized us to continue the fight for giving our scholars the best education possible that
is tailored to their needs. While IPMS may not be a reality yet, it is definitely possible to infuse
principles that we’ve created in our own sphere of influence: our classrooms.

References

1. Dowden, T. (2007) Relevant, Challenging, Integrative and Exploratory Curriculum Design:

Perspectives from Theory and Practice for Middle Level Schooling in Australia. The
Australian Educational Researcher, 34(2): 51-71.
2. Eckstein, M. (2009) Enrichment 2.0: Gifted and Talented Education for the 21st Century.
Gifted Child Today, 32(1): 59-63.
3. Zannin, P.H.T. & Zwirtes, D.P.Z. (2008). Evaluation of the acoustic performance of
classrooms in public schools. Retrieved via:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003682X08001461