Honorable Mention - Elementary
Irving Middle School, Norman

Norman, A Brighter Place

Irving Middle School is located at 125 Vicksburg on the east side of Norman. We have approximately 650 students, consisting of a wide mix of ethnic groups and socioeconomics. Our population is approximately 40-45% low income (free/reduced lunch) and about 30% minority. We strive to run our school with this mission statement in mind.

In partnership with parents and the community, Irving Middle School offers a safe and challenging learning environment where all students experience mutual respect and academic success.

Our commitment to our community and our support by our community are highly valued. Each year we work to foster a closer link between the two. This year, your project is one way we have chosen to support our community. We are proud Normanites and eagerly accept your challenge to demonstrate our Norman pride by participating in your collage contest.

We chose to demonstrate our theme, Norman, A Brighter Place, by using student pictures and student reproduced hand prints to personalize our collage. We chose to highlight two Norman personalities, Sherri Coale and James Garner, one from Norman's past who graduated from Norman High School and made a name for himself in the entertainment industry and one from Norman's present who made Norman her hometown and coached both at Norman High and at OU. Each is an example of our hometown pride. The sun made of 7th graders hands (reduced in size) is an idea that came from 8th grader, Rachel Bruce. The sun symbolizes our unity and commitment to making Norman a brighter place. IMS 8th grader, Amber Agnew, designed the religious component of the collage and Sam Boeck and Brandt Skinner (both 8th graders) designed the Jazz in June component. Several students were involved in creating the design for the Duck Pond, a place where the Norman community and the OU students come together, and the downtown/Main Street components which give Norman a "small town" feeling where everyone works and plays together. We have tried to show Norman's cultural emphasis, its beauty, and its diversity. We hope our collage will demonstrate that the people in our hometown care about each other as they "play, pray, and work" together.