Mobile Ed Productions has reached it's 35th year, and Geoff Beauchamp has been a part of more than half of it! Starting as a performer in January of 1989, Geoff created Mobile Ed's The Living Lincoln, and is still one of our "Lincoln's" who brings The Living Lincoln into your school each year. Pretty good likeliness huh? 

I wasn't always Lincoln.

One of our new programs this year is a real stunner! Piankeshaw Trails, performed magnificently by Sheryl Hartman, is an awesome school assembly program that introduces kids to the culture and history of the Woodland Tribes of the Ohio Valley. It is a great show in it’s own right. But it is also perfect for schools in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Kentucky who are looking for ideas and means to increase kids interest in this field which is so heavily featured in state standards all across the Midwest.

I have been reading a fascinating book lately, made even more pertinent by the passing this week of Columbus Day (did you notice? It was last Monday). 1492 - The Year The World Began -  by Felipe Fernandez Armesto details the myriad ways in which the world was changed by the voyage of Columbus and the European discovery of “the New World” It is a great book and one I highly recommend. Great stuff about all the changes the world experienced because of that voyage, many of which you might never have imagined. However, there is one area of change we all know a little about and that is the change wrought on the native population of North America by the arrival of Europeans.

Continuing today in the theme of exploring how school assembly programs augment the learning process in terms of state academic standards, we turn to Indiana.
In Social Studies, along with many other states, Indiana fourth graders are required to learn about Indiana state history. In particular , the very first section, Standard 1, and the very first two bullet points read as follows:
- Identify and compare the major early cultures that existed in the region that became Indiana prior to contact with Europeans
Example - Paleo-Indians such as Hopewell, Adena, and the Mississippian cultures
- Identify and describe historic Native American Indian groups that lived in Indiana at the time of the European exploration, including ways these groups adapted to and interacted with the physical environment. (Individuals,Society and Culture)
Example: Miami,Shawnee, Potawatomi and Lenape (Delaware)
There is more,but you get the point. Grade 4 is expected to learn about the native tribes indigenous to Indiana. Further exploration of the standards shows that grades 3 and 5 also cover this same material, as does Piankeshaw Trails, Mobile Ed’s new program specifically designed to teach kids about the native tribes of the Ohio valley including Indiana. All the points above are covered in this awesome and exciting program and a lot more. And the presentation is so much fun the kids don’t realize they are learning!
Now lets look at Science.

Sky Dome Planetarium is one of the most popular school assemblies in the country. And why wouldn’t it be? For kids there is hardly a more awesome experience than to enter their gym and discover a huge silver dome occupying half the room and standing some sixteen feet high. And then to enter the dome itself through a mysterious tunnel, sit in the dark inside and then to be treated to a wondrous journey into outer space and beyond! We have never met a child (or adult!) that did not think this a totally awesome experience.
With curriculum based instruction embedded thoroughly throughout the program this great school assembly is also a huge hit with teachers, as it reinforces educational benchmarks in several areas.
And so we are happy to alert you that we have made more than one tour available this year in the midwest. Michigan and Ohio schools, being right in our backyard so to speak, ave always had great opportunities for scheduling this show, but with extra performers now available, Skydome will be able to visit several states that have not had great access to this portable planetarium school assembly before.
Sky Dome (sometimes confused with the older Star Lab program) is available this school year to midwestern schools in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minneapolis and even Texas, Utah, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota!
For those in other parts of the country, do not despair, as we have additional performers resident on the East and West coasts and available to service schools both in California and the eastern states of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and all of New England.
So let the stars shine over your school!

All over the midwest, in states such as Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois, part of the curriculum for intermediate grades involves teaching 3rd, 4th and 5th graders about the Native American tribes that lived in this part of the country before the Europeans arrived. There is nothing strange about this. All over the country it is standard for states to require children in this age range to learn the history of their own state. In the midwest states that is all wrapped up in the history and culture of the tribes that inhabited this area in the centuries before settlers began arriving from the eastern colonies of the early United States.

I have written before on occasion about a good friend and a truly magnificent school assembly performer, Toma the Mime. Toma was recently at Fisher Elementary in Speedway, Indianapolis. I just got off the phone with Kathryn Richards the principal there, and ... wow!
Fisher has had many programs from us over the years but in the past they have always favored the living history characters like Lincoln and Martin Luther King. And they have always loved them! But they had never seen Toma before. Toma does our Young Author's Day school assembly. And he is really good! Ms. Richards was so excited she could hardly finish her own sentences! She told me of veteran teachers who, prior to the show, were skeptical. What can a mime teach about writing? But after Toma had finished his school assembly program, the same teachers were beside themselves with excitement! The school uses the 6 plus 1 traits of writing plan and works very hard at it but had not found the “spark” to get kids interested in it. Ms. Richards told me in particular about her sixth graders and how they are usually too “cool” for school assemblies. But after the visit from Toma, these same young people were bouncing off the walls with excitement! Now the school plans to have Toma back every year as the very “spark” that was needed.
One last anecdote she shared with me. One particular student was so impressed with this school assembly that he went home and was up for hours reading and sharing in the stories posted on Toma’s Facebook page. The next day he told his teacher about his night. The teacher couldn’t wait to tell Ms. Richards. This particular student has learning disabilities and normally struggles with even the simplest of reading tasks. And yet this same student not only spent hours reading postings on Tom’s site, and posting some himself, he could not wait to share his experience with his teacher the next day! So.... just what can you learn from a mime? A whole lot it would seem! Kudos, Toma!
Well, I said this was about Texas school assemblies, and so it is! As I write, Toma is en route to Texas to spend a few weeks introducing students there to the joy of writing and creativity. There are still a few dates left open in his schedule, so if you represent a school in the great Lone Star State, and could use a little help in the writing department, give us a call. We have a school assembly tailor made for you! But don’t wait. Toma won’t be in Texas for long!

Get the news out! As of this week, Mobile Ed is now accepting orders for school assemblies at Indiana schools for the 2011-2012 school year.