The Ideal and Dream schools in Royal Palm Beach, based on Harvard Professor Dr. Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence, hosted their first “MI Museum” on Friday, Jan. 25.
At this evening event, students in grades 3 through 8 brought the multiple intelligences to life and celebrated historical and contemporary individuals who have used their dominant intelligences to have a positive impact on society.
“The evening was a fantastic celebration of both the intelligences that underpin our school’s teaching approach and the students’ communication ability,” said Tom Dyde, the Dream Middle School language arts teacher.
Each student selected a figure he or she felt had used one of the eight intelligences in a positive way. Through research activities, students developed a greater understanding of their figures and their accomplishments. This allowed them to reflect on how their dominant intelligence could have helped the figure achieve these feats. The research and reflections helped the students to construct effective speeches that showed a deep understanding of the selected figure, their accomplishments and their intelligence.
The Ideal and Dream schools were transformed into a living wax museum with more than 100 students dressed as these important individuals and positioned as statues throughout the schools as parents and students toured the MI Museum. When prompted by the push of a button, the statues would come to life and provide a brief history, the accomplishments and the intelligence represented by their chosen individual. Students focused on how body language, accent, tone and facial expression could assist the delivery of the speeches. A range of accents, from English, to Australian and Indian, filled the school building, as students worked exceptionally hard to “become” their selected figures through appearance, sound and mannerisms.
Third-grade student Sophia Roud brought verbal linguistic learner J.K. Rowling to life while eighth-grade student Cristina Casas modeled mathematical logical learner Helen Keller. Others included Elvis, Gandhi, Queen Elizabeth II, Leonardo Da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Jacques Cousteau and many more. After the MI Museum, students and families gathered behind the school to watch the movie A Night at the Museum under the stars.
The Ideal Preschool, Ideal Elementary School and Dream Middle School make up a private school in Royal Palm Beach for students who excel in academics, arts and character.
For more information, visit www.dreamideal.com.
Above: Ideal fourth-graders Croix Kordick (Salvador Dali), Grant Fennessy (George Washington) and Carson Van Popering (Mikhail Baryshnikov) pose as wax statues for the MI Museum.
