Kids love an IHFT. Teachers love an IHFT. Parent/teacher organizations love an IHFT.  So what is an IHFT? The acronym stands for In House Field Trip!  So why have an IHFT instead of the standard field trip because students love those too?

Christmas is almost here and New Years Eve is, of course, right behind. 2011 is almost history and we will soon be trying to remember to write 2012 on all our checks (I will probably remember around February, myself).

Our resident author, Geoff Beauchamp, writes blog posts exemplifying the talent of his co-workers and the importance of the school assembly programs they present. The humble Mr. Beauchamp never writes to exemplify his talent. This blog post will do what has never been done before, praise Geoff for his dedication, hard work and inspiring performance as Abraham Lincoln.

Based in Michigan, as we are, many of our school assembly performers are Michigan artists and teachers. It also happens frequently that performing school assemblies will get into your blood. A great school show performer, having worked for us for awhile, will retire to some other profession only to find they miss our odd little world.

How do you know which programs and how many presentations to do for your school? This is a question which comes up with any Elementary school or Middle School looking for ideas for school assemblies. Well, as famous detective Sherlock Holmes used to say: “Elementary, my dear Watson!, Elementary!”

I sit tonight watching the beginning of Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. The New York Yankees are tied one game apiece with the Texas Rangers, and tonight’s game is in Yankee Stadium.
The place is packed and the excitement is so thick you can cut it with a knife (well, almost!). It is so easy for all of us to be excited and motivated by the competition of sports.

I just caught an article in the LA Times, mentioning that President Obama will be making a guest appearance on the Television program Mythbusters this coming December. (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/sns-news-obama-mythbusters,0,5120428.story)

It is Fall and a lot of schools are looking for things to do with the kids to break up the daily grind of classroom work and augment the educational process through a field trip. And there is nothing wrong with field trips! We all love taking trips to cool destinations. Trips to a Planetarium or the Zoo or a historical site all contribute mightily to a students education and can spark the imagination in countless ways.

A new book caught my eye this week, or rather my ears, as I first heard about this new tome while listening to a radio interview with the author, Eric Foner. You would think that with the vast plethora of books available about Lincoln that we would scarcely need another ( there are more books about Lincoln than almost any other person who ever lived!). But in this case, the author has provided something very useful by examining the course of Lincoln’s thinking about slavery and about African Americans in general, and how that thinking changed over time. I highly recommend “Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World” by Eric Foner. Here is a great review - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/books/review/Reynolds-t.html