Recently it was brought to light that several species of Australian birds now driven into extinction might have been saved with today’s knowledge and a little human effort (http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=six-australian-birds-declared-extin-2011-01-06) In fact, it is estimated that a quarter of the species on Earth may disappear forever within the next quarter century. These include many lesser known creatures, but also some very well known animals, such as black rhinoceros and the Siberian Tiger. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2000325.stm).

Well, it’s December 17, 2010, and the year is winding down here at Mobile Ed Productions. At lunchtime today the office will close, and, with the exception of a skeleton staff, we will be closed until January 3. 

Travel is a regular part of the life of a school assembly performer. Professional presenters of school assemblies are regularly “on the road”, and these "road warriors" often rack up huge amounts of miles during the course of a normal school year. One presenter of ours who does not usually travel as often or as far, is our wonderful “Dr Exhaustus” himself, Jeff Hoge. Jeff is resident in Chicago and regularly performs in schools all around northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, with his own program on the environment, “Our Changing Climate” as well as with our creative writing school assembly program “Young Authors Day”. In addition, during the winter, Jeff handles our Living Lincoln assembly program.

Every Fall, teachers and parents find they have a new job. Somehow they wake up and find out they have been given the job of picking and scheduling the school assembly programs for their school. Yes, you know who you are!

Just a quick story about one of our school assembly performers and the power of school assemblies to impact the self esteem of children in a powerful and positive manner.

If you are looking for ideas for school assemblies that are relevant to the curriculum then one good plan is to try and tie things to the calendar. I like to think of these as “seasonal” programs.