We have been back in the Chicago area this week with Sky Dome Planetarium, our portable planetarium school assembly, presented in schools there by the exceptional Rojo. He just appeared at a school in Joliet, Illinois, and judging by the reaction I think they liked him!

Mike Carrell is a veteran school show presenter for Mobile Ed Productions. Originally from Oklahoma, Mike is a very friendly, funny and gregarious fellow with a wonderful happy outlook on life. He has worked in the field of school assemblies for many years and has worked all over the country. He is one of our presenters for our Earth Balloon assembly “The Earth Dome” and also  brings our television production assembly “Lights Camera Action” into schools.

It’s May and our phones are ringing off the hook. Clients from schools here in the Midwest and all around the country are calling to set their school shows and school assemblies and enrichment programs for next year. Wise schools like to schedule in the spring because they know they get the best selection of dates and also because they can then relax all summer knowing they don’t have “the sword of Damocles” hanging over their heads. Their season is set. Many times I have concluded a conversation with a school principal in which we set their dates for the following year and then ask what they were doing for the summer. The reply is always something like “ I am going to Hilton Head to play golf, and I am really happy to get this off my plate so I can relax and not worry about next year!”

Kids love animals! No escaping that one. A visit to the zoo is a beloved experience for all kids. And it's a great part of their education, too.

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.

Ohio is just across the line from our home state of Michigan so, of course, a lot of our school assemblies appear at Ohio schools throughout the year. Every so often we will encounter a reporter at a school, either from a newspaper or a television station, and we are always happy to see them. Sadly, by the time the article appears in print we are usually gone from the area and so we seldom see our own publicity.
Recently, however, one of our school assembly presenters was in a southern Ohio school to present our television production school assembly program - “Lights Camera Action”. Derek McDonald, one of the gentlemen who presents that show was visiting at the Bishop Flaget school in Chillicothe, Ohio. He found himself speaking with David Berman, a reporter from the Chillicothe Gazette. Well David wrote a nice little piece about the program which you can read here:
http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20110303/NEWS01/103030301/-1/7daysarchives/Bishop-Flaget-students-get-hands-chance-video-production
We are very proud of Derek. Derek hails from the great state of Tennessee and has been performing school assemblies in schools throughout the midwest for us for many years. He has many fans in schools in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Derek also presents our Character Counts school assembly “Inspector Iwannano”, and does a really great job. The great news is that next year Derek will also take on two of our other programs (two of our absolute best!), “Sky Dome Planetarium” and “The Earth Dome” (AKA Earth Balloon). We are certain he will bring great professionalism and flair to these fine school assemblies. The bad news is that next year Derek will spend very little time in the midwest schools where he has performed for so many years. Schools in Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky will have to fight over a small number of dates in September and January, as Derek will spend much of the 2011-2012 school year on the East coast visiting our client schools in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, New England and throughout the area around DC, Maryland and Virginia. So bad news for midwest schools but great news for schools on the East coast.
Regardless of where you are, whether your school is in Ohio or New York, Michigan or Virginia, the great school assemblies presented by Derek will provide an awesome experience for your school. He is a champion school assembly performer and we hope you will bring him to your school next year!

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

We have written before about Rojo, a truly inspiring school assembly presenter who has worked for us for many years. He currently performs our Character Counts assembly program - Inspector Iwannano - and also is one of our presenters for the portable planetarium Skydome here in the Midwest. But Rojo came to us originally to present our Martin Luther King school assembly, and he is still truly magnificent in that role and renowned for his presentations in schools throughout the Midwest. And that is what some students from Natcher Elementary in Bowling Green, Kentucky found out for themselves just recently!

School assembly audiences across the Midwest and on the East Coast are likely familiar with a great school assembly performer from Mobile Ed Productions named Robert Pirtle. Robert comes to us from Memphis, Tennessee and is a multitalented individual who offers schools a variety of school assemblies including Bodyworks (a program on human anatomy), The Magic of Science, Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglas. However, Robert is also a very skilled mime and carries our two mime based programs Young Authors Day (Creative Writing) as well as Mime Time a simple exploration of the entertainment and cultural arts wonders inherent in the practice of classical mime.

Just a teaser here... Mobile Ed Productions will be making a great announcement in the next few days very relevant to the world of Midwest school assemblies and science assemblies. Stay tuned for details!