Once again a science assembly from Mobile Ed is in the news! Robert Pirtle, noted for his great school assemblies through out the Midwest and in Texas, is currently out East and making headline stories! His super science assembly The Magic of Science was recently in Utica, New York at Martin Luther King Elementary. Reporters from WKTV were there to cover the story.

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!

Are you old enough to remember 1979? Let me help your memory. 

Mobile Ed school assemblies are in the news again! Recently our earth balloon school assembly - The Earth Dome - visited students at Mowrey Elementary in Pennsylvania. Nancy Mace, a reporter with The Record Herald, shared an article on the visit.

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!

In recent days we have all been mesmerized and appalled at the steady stream of appalling news and devastating pictures and video pouring out of Japan. Our hearts go out to the untold thousands of people in this time of catastrophic injury. Nature is truly ferocious beyond belief or comprehension, and our man made accomplishments are so easily cast aside in its wake.
We are left though wondering how mankind may better prepare against such events in the future, and also facing once more in the wake of the nuclear reactor failures, contemplating a future after fossil fuels when we must have other ways in which to meet our energy needs.
These are not simple problems and they will not go away. And simple answers will not suffice. As the great newspaper man H.L. Mencken once observed “ For every difficult problem there is a simple answer ... and it’s wrong.” :-)

Most kids I know don't read newspapers. They don't watch the news on television. Oh, they might wander into a room where the news is on the television but it usually might as well be invisible when they do. My point is that current events are usually not on children's radar, unless we put them there.

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

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

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