Super School Assemblies

Killing Time at McDonald’s between School Assemblies

David Jack — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:40:45 +0000

During my school assembly entitled Dr. Drill’s Mission Possible show, the presenter, Dr. Drill himself discusses fast food and its effects on kids. He has a table full of different food types. Fruit , a bag of mixed nuts, some gummy bears and a plastic replica of French Fries. During the show, the kids are asked to choose a certain type of food. They don’t get any particular instructions. In otherwords, Dr. Drill doesn’t say “go choose a healthy type of food” he just says, go choose a food and bring it back to me. Which is the number one type of food chosen? Right. The French fries. It’s really uncanny. Our kids are hard-wired or even brainwashed to choose the fries! They do it almost every time! Fortunately, ours is one of the only shows on the school assembly market to really address the problem of fast food and childhood obesity. We don’t preach to the kids, or reprimand them for choosing the fries. Its not their fault. Kids (and parents) are constantly bombarded in every type of media, television, radio, magazines, even the internet with advertisments for fast food. Fries, burgers, shakes have come to stand for what America is. Fortunately, Dr. Drill is a great example for kids to be not what tv tells them to be, but to make decisions for themselves.
Dr. Drill is a former Marine Corps. sergeant and is besides doing school shows with The Entertainment Company, he makes his living as a Doctor of chiropractic. He leads a model life, he eats right, exercises and is a real live show and tell for elementary school students. He sings the praises of teamwork and how eating right makes us healthier human beings and helps us exel not only school, but in everything we do.

So here I am — in McDonalds. Do I practice what I preach? Have I listened to a word I’ve said??! Why am I writing this in a McDonald’s resaurant? Because I have two hours to kill before I go back to my second school assembly show at East Fallowfield elementary and the internet at McDonald’s is free. No burgers, no fries…just free internet. Dr. Drill would approve.

How “Smash”, “Glee” and School Assemblies Connect

David Jack — Sun, 13 May 2012 22:12:21 +0000

If your kids are like mine, they reserve (at least) a few nights for their favorite television programs. Homework takes a back seat, family takes a back seat, for the most part even friends take a backseat. You can’t ask the kid to do the dishes, you can’t ask them to clean their room. The familiar “dad — I can’t! My show is on!” reverberates through the house.

The next morning, all of the kids gather around the locker or the classroom and compare notes about what happened on the previous nights’ shows. Its’ a ritual that’s been happening as long as there has been television.

These days, Glee on Fox, NBC’S SMASH and a handful of other Disney shows have gotten the attention of America’s youth. As a presenter of school assemblies, I have found this has helped my mission to expand the minds of our elementary school kids through creativity and thinking “outside the box.”

For better or for worse, kids mimic television. I remember playing Batman and robin with my friends after seeing an episode of the campy series. And for those who remember — I’m talking about Adam West’s Batman. Not the Dark Knight starring Christian Bale. It was fun, it was popular and it gave me a rare chance to exercise my overly-active imagination.

My school assembly program entitled MUSICMANIA is a gym class for the imagination. The assembly invites kids to exercise their creative muscles. For example, just one of the things the school assembly covers is their favorite current music artists. We do an overview of musical styles that they may or may not be familiar with. Due to the popularity of these new music-based and performance-oriented network shows, the kids are much more open to explore their own inner-creativity. In the recent past, taking creative chances in an elementary school environment was not a route typically traveled. Today, kids are excited and enthusiastic when I give them a chance to express themselves creatively during a school assembly. They don’t necessarily mimic the characters on television (like we did) but instead, they consider the “act” of creativity much cooler than it used to be. Through these mainstream shows and my MUSICMANIA school assembly, today’s child gets a much richer artistic experience and gets more out of not only school. But life. It’s a perfect balance of art, education and pop culture.

Getting to know Pennsylvania through School Assemblies

David Jack — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:02:11 +0000

I have a unique career because I get the opportunity to travel throughout the country performing school assemblies for schools and elementary kids in many different settings. One of my favorites (and for a good reason) is doing shows in the state of Pennsylvania. In the past three months, I’ve been lucky enough to put about two thousand miles on my car traveling back and forth around this beautiful state.

From Pittsburgh, the home of the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, to Philadelphia which I’m proud to call home. You can see just about every kind of person, taste just about every kind of food and see many different sites that PA has to offer. Two of the largest state universities, Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh are just hours from my home and I believe that having two world-renowned centers of learning, gives Pennsylvania a distinct advantage for a superior lifestyle for its residence. Besides that, the cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia offer some of the greatest cultural and business opportunities in the world. Some of the country’s greatest medical schools can also be found in these cities. The University of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Mellon offer great learning opportunities as well.

I haven’t even touched on the center of the state which offers some of the most magnificent parks and recreation anywhere in the world. Pennsylvania is also known for some of the greatest home-grown food anywhere in the world! Just ask someone on the streets of South Philadelphia where to get the best cheesesteak in the city. You just might find yourself caught up in a 2 hour argument! How about the soft pretzels of and the unique culinary stylings of our Pennsylvania Dutch!? Food is a huge part of what’s great about Pennsylvania.

Performing school assemblies in PA gives me the opportunity to give back to the community (yes the state is my community) where I got my start. From Bristol, PA to the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania is not only a great place to live. But a great place to do school assemblies!

Reggie and HIP HOP NOW! The Character-Building/ Standardized Testing Show!

David Jack — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 20:06:44 +0000

I want to talk to you a moment about kids and school assemblies. Yesterday marked the 70^th assembly that we performed in 2012 and the magic keeps on happening. We had the unique opportunity to return for a second time to visit Silver Lake Elementary in the great state of Delaware and perform our Character Building through Hip Hop show. The show features my friend and performing-partner Reggie Williams. Reggie and I have known each other and worked together for nearly fifteen years. We met during our days at Sesame Place where I did the shows and he was a featured assistant. As soon as I met Reggie, I recognized that he had not one but many many talents. He was a fantastic dancer and acrobat and often created catchy chants and “raps” for the park. The most astonishing characteristic that Reggie had (and has) and the most valuable one (in my opinion) is that he has an almost unforgettable personality. In other words, when people meet him, they never forget him. He’s just that kind of guy. He is personable, funny, and talented.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So what does that have to do with the school assemblies? I’ll tell you. Having worked with Reggie for as long as I have, I know that this talent of being a “people person” is invaluable. It is one of the things that made me want to have him as a business partner after establishing a successful party-entertainment business that specialized in bar mitzvah parties. Like the party business, school assembly presenters are often people that may be great singers, or great instrumentalists or great story tellers, or great magicians, but these performers and the people who hire them sometimes forget that a school assembly performance does not take place in a vacuum. The real success of a school assembly is when the performer makes a “connection” with the audience. When that “magic” happens, then the information the fun, the entertainment and the education form a perfect union. There is absolutely no one anywhere in this country that makes a better connection to elementary school students than Reggie.

His assembly HIP HOP NOW! has been one our company’s most successful shows and its always a treat for me to watch Reggie ingratiate himself with the school population, the teachers and the administration! Everyone loves Reggie and if you haven’t brought him out to your school yet for a school assembly. Your kids are really missing out on something special.\

The shows can focus on either Character Building or (what has become a specialty of ours) Standardized Testing Skills and Strategies presented in a fun, interactive and unforgettable way.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A New School Bullying Video for your Enjoyment!

David Jack — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:27:24 +0000

I’m really happy with the way that this schooly bullying promo came out. Enjoy! (and “share” it with your friends….)

Click here to view the embedded video.

A short school bullying video for elementaryassembly.com’s new anti-bullying assembly. Stand Up, Step In, Stop Bullying!

Does Our Kid’s Clothing put a Bulls Eye on their Back?

David Jack — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 15:53:59 +0000

What has America come to? Today, there is an unnerving expectation among school students that school bullying has become a part of everyday life. Bullying manifests itself in many different ways. Shoving on the bus, pushing in the hallway, throwing someone against a school locker. Following someone and threatening them on the football or baseball field. Administrators around the country seem to be aware of the issue but have come to the realization that totally eradicating the problem of bullying is not realistic. Bullying has been around for as long as kids have been in school, but mitigating and minimizing the problem has become the foremost issue of the day in Education.

Students have found that there are specific things that can trigger a bully to attack. Differences can be a trigger for bullying. Kids that are different will often draw the attention of bullies. Clothing that is out of the ordinary might be considered effeminate or gay by bullies and will often send the kids who choose to wear the unique clothing into hiding. Children who are handicapped can also draw the attention of bullies. The question to be explored here is who is at fault? In the case of the tragedy in Florida where the young man was killed because he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt caused parents to order their children to stop wearing clothing that included hooded sweatshirts. Should parents be dictating their children’s wardrobe to avoid bullies as well? Should our society be so homogenized that noone appears unique? Is this the message we should be sending to our kids? Other than parents, the only other layer of protection for our elementary school children falls on the school administrators. This leads to another question. If differences and uniqueness marks our kids as targets for bullies, should we do away with those characteristics while they’re in school? Should we mandate uniforms in school? With uniforms, there would be no clothing that identify each individual child making them different. Bullies would not be identify a fellow student as gay or stupid because of the way they look. Perhaps this is the answer. In America, perhaps its not.

Homework at the Kitchen table and the Death of Encyclopedia Britannica

David Jack — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:25:26 +0000

Remember when America Online was the only game in town? Remember dial up? Remember waiting two, three or even 5 minutes for a picture to “download” to your computer screen? It seems unbelievable that our lives have changed so much over the past 20 years. Anything one could possibly want to know is found on the internet. Anything! Even though it’s obvious that computers have made our lives so much easier, given the fast pace of our lives it is easy to forget that so much has changed in such a short time.
If you’re looking for videos of cats, you only have to type in You tube cats. If you’re looking for a recipe for virtually anything, recipe.com. If you are a member of the school Parent Teacher Organization and you’re looking for a bullying show for your kid’s school, there are several directories and websites dealing with school bullying. If you need to find out if you are depressed, you go to the depression website. If you need to know what a drugs’ side effect is, simply google it. The list goes on and on and on.
This week, the Encyclopedia Britannica printed its final book. What is book anyway? Soon our kids will be asking that question. Soon our kids will see books and encyclopedias in a museum! Literally! The World Book Encyclopedia and Encyclopedia Britannica used to be the one place where you knew you could find information. Any information. Birds, plants, cavemen, geography. Everything was right there at your finger tips. Sure it might take you 10 or 15 minutes to find the right book, then find the right section in the book, but you knew you could find the information in 10 or 15 minutes. Now, if you need the same information, you can find it in 10 or 15 seconds at your computer.
I get a little sad when I think about all of the time spent at the kitchen table, with my papers and the World Book spread out before me. Working on a paper. Today, the kids don’t have to read books to do a book report. In fact, teachers now have stopped assigning book reports for that very reason. It’s a waste of time to assign homework that you know won’t get done. Instead, they have become smart and make the kids read the book in class where they know it’s getting done.
What happened to homework at the kitchen table?

School Assemblies in NJ

David Jack — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:02:36 +0000

Performing a school assembly in New Jersey might be one of the greatest most rewarding experiences a school assembly performer can have. It’s true that I have performed for Presidents, on television for millions of people, in front of a full stadium of Baltimore Orioles fans singing the National Anthem, but performing for an auditorium full of Jersey kids always seems to make those prior experiences pale in comparison. Maybe it’s something in the water. The enthusiasm of the kids in New Jersey (not to mention their teachers), is always plentiful. For performers it is sometimes difficult to know whether you’re making a connection with your audience or not. ( That’s not to say that I don’t always make the connection!) Instead, what I’m trying to say is that sometimes an audience doesn’t necessarily communicate BACK to the performer. It’s not a bad show, it’s not a bad audience and it’s not a bad performer, it’s just that some audiences are more sedentary than others. Personally I’ve never had that problem with school assemblies in New Jersey. Maybe it has something to do with the proximity to New York and the old adage saying that New Yorkers have a hard time containing themselves and are outspoken. I have done school shows in NY, school assemblies in PA and have found that outspokenness is not limited to New York or the east coast. I’m sorry to say that movies, television and reality shows probably tend to perpetuate that false stereotype.

I like to think that New Jersey is a special state. It has so many things to offer its residents. There are beaches, there are mountains there are rivers, there are flatlands… it has everything to offer to its residents. Most importantly, education is a huge priority for New Jersey. NJ Parents and NJ teachers take the education of their children very seriously. The problem of bullying, an issue that has come to the forefront of America’s consciousness is especially important to New Jersey educators. I’m very happy that my new bullying assembly is being reviewed and accepted by New Jersey school assembly coordinators.

New Jersey kids are great and I’m happy to be able to do my school assembly programs in New Jersey. If you’re a school assembly or home and school coordinator in New Jersey (or anywhere else!) Please click on my banner above and check out all of my school assembly shows.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The “Bully Movie” – Why Are They trying to keep it from Kids?

David Jack — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:48:54 +0000

Hollywood has decided to “take on” one of the toughest issues facing America.    Bullying in School. This problem has reached epidemic proportions in America. Many children attending school this year in the United States will claim that they’ve been bullied. I just saw Harvey Weinstein, the producer in the new film entitled “Bully” and he was talking about the R rating by the MPAA that his film received. He was afraid this would keep kids away from the theaters because they have to be accompanied by a parent.
Parents and teachers have been attempting to attack the problem of bullies and bring it to the attention of the public. It’s a known reality that bullies work in secret. In fact, most bullying episodes only have a single bystander — if any at all.   One of the main characteristics of bullying is giving bullies an option to privately corner their victims.   This is how predators inside the animal empire act when attempting to kill.
The producer of this film along with his creative staff are incredibly angry and upset that they’ve received this rating.    Young people might have direct exposure to an anti-bullying subjects in school by means of guidance counselors, teachers, and bullying school assembly programs. But having a mainstream movie tackling this subject was an exciting prospect for everybody involved within the project. So why are they worried about this MPAA rating? Aren’t there tons of R rated teen comedies? The problem is: going to the movies with a parent is not cool.
Bullying at school can be a challenge that has great national impact.   Kids being bullied at school are much less likely to succeed as well as they could if they had not been bullied. School bullies have already been identified to be more likely candidates for wrongdoing, and criminal activities. “Bully” received an R rating because of the reality that there were a total of 4 instances of the “F” word. Let’s get our priorities in-line. Wouldn’t it make sense to allow, and insure that this important film is seen by as many kids as possible?

Dr. Drill’s Family Wellness Night!

David Jack — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:10:01 +0000

Healthy living is a very important issue in society today, as our country’s GPA in this area is threatened by chronic disease, a lot of which might be prevented by making better lifestyle choices.

Our Family Wellness Assembly encourages students, parents and teachers to join together in the active processes of health. The event begins with Dr. Drill educating the group on healthy living essentials: how to eat, exercise, manage stress and work as a team to accomplish the healthy living mission! Next, the group is engaged in Dr. Drill’s Stay Fit While You Sit, a seated workout and motivational session that unites the group around physical activity. Finally, Dr. Drill employs various individuals as assistants, running multiple exercise stations and rallying the team to the finish line. But at Family Wellness Night, we don’t run TO the finish line, but THROUGH the finish line!