By now, we would hope that most people have some awareness bullying in our schools and just how tragic the outcome often is. To raise awareness even more, each year in October we observe National Bullying Prevention Month. What started as a week of observance, founded in 2006 by Pacer's National Center For Bullying Prevention, the campaign has grown to occupy the entire month. Now coming up on it's eleventh year, the celebration truly it has an affect on the entire month and the entire year. And deservedly so. The scourge of bullying is preventable.

Good news for Texas schools! This Fall Texan schools will have a chance to enjoy a brand new science program steeped in exciting demonstrations of physical science, and performed by one of our best school assembly performers.
Toma the Mime is well known across the country for his stellar Young Authors Day school assemblies which have been dazzling audiences for twenty years and continue to encourage kids to write creatively. Additionally, for the past year or so, Toma, also a talented actor, has been visiting schools in the guise of Mr. Thomas Edison, and bringing to life the great inventor for countless delighted school audiences.
This year  Toma adds a new program to his repertoire, taking on the performer duties for our newest science assembly The Invisible Wonder! This awesome new school show explores the physical properties of air, atmosphere, vacuums and a host of other scientific phenomena through super cool demonstrations including air cannons, vacuum spheres and a working hovercraft for kids to ride on!
Toma will be returning to the Lone Star State in  October with all three of these great programs. So Texas schools will have some hard choices to make! Do they want a fantastic new science program, a mesmerizing historical recreation of the life of a famous American inventor, or do they want an amazing day of creative writing their kids will never forget?
Then again, why choose? Since Toma does not visit Texas often, why not schedule him for two days and enjoy all that he has to offer? A cross curriculum whirlwind in a brace of days might be just the ticket to wake up your  kids this Fall.
I can see it now... scores of young Texan children all dressed as mimes for Halloween!

The good news is that Stronger Than a Bully, Mobile Ed’s highly anticipated new anti bullying program will be touring Texas this coming winter in January and February. This is a great new school assembly program, performed by a wonderful Mobile Ed presenter named Dave Mitchell, whom some of you will remember as our superb Ben Franklin!

There are some people who just love conspiracies and mysteries and especially anything to do with “the end of the world” Remember all the brouhaha about the “millennium bug” that was going to destroy all our computers on January 1 in the year 2000? Sometimes I think there are people whose own lives are so miserable they dream of catastrophe and disaster as welcome diversions from the monotonous mundane lives they lead. 

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!

We recently announced the beginning of school assembly scheduling for the 2011-2012 school year. For our client schools in the great state of Texas, and for all the other fine schools there who have not yet tried one of our awesome school assemblies, here is some fantastic news!

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

"What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet..." Yes, Shakespeare said it best, as always. But in the world of school assemblies, names can be quite confusing.