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.

So Thanksgiving is over and that only means one thing here in Michigan and Ohio and the rest of the Midwest. Winter is coming and it’s right around the corner! 

Well, tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, and many of us will have severely expanded waistlines on Friday! I want to wish all of you a happy and joyous day, hopefully spent in celebration with family and loved ones.

Your humble (cough,cough) writer has been with this company for more years than he likes to admit, but there is one performer who even has me beat! I started performing my Abraham Lincoln school assembly in January of 1989. To gauge how long ago that was, I always remind myself that while waiting to perform that morning, pacing back and forth in a school faculty lounge, I could look up at the television in the lounge and watch as George Bush took the Oath of Office .... George Bush senior, that is!
Yikes, it's been a long time doing school assembly programs!

Just a quick one this morning!

Many states focus their 4th Grade curriculum on elements of their own state history. This gives the savvy coordinator of school assembly programs some great options! For example, in Illinois, Indiana or Kentucky a perfect subject for an assembly program is, of course, Abraham Lincoln. But with a little scholarship and a little digging, you can get some great ideas for school assembly programs at your school by perusing the content standards for your state. They are usually found quite easily these days on the web site for your state’s Board of Education.

Here is something to remember! Next Sunday we leave Daylight Savings Time, at 2 AM local time. So don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour at that time or you will be really early to Church that morning! 

Schools searching online for elementary school assembly ideas will no doubt be struck eventually by the fact that of the many companies and performers offering science assemblies and other types of educational school assembly programs, a very large number are based in Michigan and other parts of the Midwest.

How do you know which programs and how many presentations to do for your school? This is a question which comes up with any Elementary school or Middle School looking for ideas for school assemblies. Well, as famous detective Sherlock Holmes used to say: “Elementary, my dear Watson!, Elementary!”

There is a bit of a debate going on here in Michigan. A few years back, as Michigan watched countless manufacturing jobs disappearing, the state government decided to try and entice new, growth industries into Michigan with generous tax credits. One of the industries they tapped was Film.

Michigan joined forty some other states in competing for film work by offering the most generous film tax credit incentives in the country. The idea was that film is still a thriving US industry which exports product all over the world, and that it employs many people in jobs that are ideal for retrained auto workers. But in addition, it is a very attractive industry for young, creative people, and Michigan has been watching a steady exodus of young people for years, all heading to more creative environments elsewhere.