David Jack School Assembly Blog

I’ve been working this week on putting some promotional materials together for my school assembly shows.  I’ve been racking my brain trying to find unique ways to get in front of the “decision makers.”  Postcards have been around for years and years and although they don’t fit into the technology of present day, who knows… maybe “snail mail” might be just the thing that’ll separate me from the rest of the pack.

Even though I send my postcards to the individual schools, I don’t know REALLY know who receives it (i.e. who opens the mail at any particular school), but hopefully, that person will pass the postcard along to the correct party.  I’ve found that there’s something about a piece of mail that makes it easier to “pass along” than an email (which sometimes can best be dealt with by simply hitting “delete.”)

I’ve been trying to create school assembly postcards that are not only visually interesting, but also include personal info about me, my school assemblies and that important “call to action” – “CALL NOW!”   I’ve always agreed with the school of thought that humor sells and I try to come up with a humorous spin for my postcards.  (Not always easy).    

Doing a big mailing (5000) can be an expensive proposition, but making the investment has typically paid off for me.  The campaign pays for itself, plus it brings in new business that could pay off for years to come.  I look at it as an investment in my future.

To date, I’ve been using a company called Postcard Services out of Florida to do my mailings.  The printing is very inexpensive and they handle all of the mailing services.  I simply provide my school assembly mailing list in excel format.    The only problem I’ve found is that their templates are fairly limited. The templates are the pre-designed cards from which I get my ideas for customizing my school assembly postcards.

If you’re familiar with my school assemblies and you think you have some creativity and would like to throw some ideas my way – I’m more than willing to at least give new school assembly ideas a listen (of course I can’t guarantee use).

Leave me your comments!

D.

It’s 10 a.m.  As the kids file in,  you wait nervously in the back of the room.  They don’t know what to expect of this welcome break from studying the three “R’s” but they know it’ll be something different.  Hopefully --  something fun. 

The principal quiets the children, makes a small speech thanking the Home and School association for sponsoring their school assemblies and then he introduces the presenter. Within a minute into the performance , the realization hits you – “Uh, oh… I think this was a mistake.”

Hiring a school assembly presenter is one of the toughest jobs around.  In the words of Forest Gump “You never know what you’re gonna get!”  As the cultural arts representative of your Home and School Association or your Parent-Teacher Organization, you have the daunting task of sifting through the mountain of promotional materials that’s been sent to your school by presenters from every corner of the country via U.S. Postal Service or these days – via email.

By the end of the school year, you finally have a grasp on the “who to hire” and “how to hire” an assembly presenter, but sometimes by then, its too late.  Next years’ cultural arts person will start where you started --  at the beginning.

Having been a successful school assembly performer and presenter for nearly 20 years, what follows will be the number one secret that home and school representatives can use when hiring a performer that promises to at least give you some measure of confidence that your school assembly will be a success.

Ready for the secret?  Hire experience.  Although you may have been to a birthday party and the twelve kids there were mesmerized by a magician while the parents enjoyed their coffee, doesn’t mean that the guy can do the same at your school.   Handling a auditorium of elementary-aged kids can be difficult for even a seasoned educator.

Think back to when you were in elementary school.  Do you remember the day your  substitute teacher walked through the door?  The happiness and glee you and your classmates felt because you were about to abuse that poor guy for the rest of the day?!  You don’t want the same situation to occur during your school assembly program.  A experienced, professional presenter is one that has hundreds (yes -- hundreds) of school performances under the belt.  Not five, not ten, not even twenty.  I’ve seen countless young presenters fresh out of college that although they might be unbelievable performers, can’t handle this type of young audience.  They get frustrated and the situation typically turns from bad to worse.   Another natural progression of experience  is longevity.  Typically you’ll find that one of the reasons that a performer has been in the school assembly business  for a long time is because he or she does a pretty good show.  Although  this work can (at times) be extremely difficult,  it is ultimately extremely  rewarding and if you’re not offering quality school assemblies performances,  you probably won’t work that much and ultimately will be forced to leave the business.

Successful booking can never be guaranteed.  But -- If you can keep this advice in mind when searching for your next school assembly, then you’ll at least get the odds in your favor that the show you’re bringing to your school will be a good one. Who knows?  You might be responsible for their best show ever!

Granted I’m not old enough to remember practicing “duck and cover” under the school desk when the threat of “the bomb” was part of every day life.  But an episode of “Mad Men” can trigger many memories of growing up in a time where a child’s entertainment was markedly different from how things are today.  I clearly remember the Davey Crockett hat that my parents brought home from their vacation supplied me with hours of imagination and fun.  I remember playing “army” with my friends or simply “putting on a show” with my brother and sister.  These antiquated activities would satisfy the entertainment needs for just about any elementary school-age child 30 or 40 years ago.

During my Spirit of America school assembly program, I tell the kids a quick story about how people used to see most of their entertainment “live on stage.”   I say --  “there were no ipods,”  (they shriek), “there were no computers.” (another shriek) and there were NO VIDEO GAMES (this time – a scream of pain!).

This little exercise is a good illustration of how our kids perceive and what they expect from their entertainment.  Make no mistake, I’m not promoting going back to the old days by any means.  Quite the contrary.  I feel that although creative opportunities  have shifted for school age children, the advances in technology have made the experience so much more satisfying. 

How do we relate these experiences to school assemblies?  Let’s look back at where the school assemblies have been in recent history.  I can only speak from personal experience, but I only remember having maybe two or three assemblies during the my entire six year stay at Samuel Everitt Elementary school in Levittown, PA.

One assembly featured a local dentist, who gave us all a lesson on brushing our teeth the “correct” way.  (I’m pretty sure there are still guys out there doing these assemblies.)  What I remember most about this program was getting those red dye pills to chew after brushing to see what parts of my mouth were missed.  Do you remember those??  They were actually called Plaque Disclosing Tablets (I just looked it up on Wikipedia)

Then I remember, a policeman who showed pictures of the local jailhouse and gave us a chance to put on handcuffs. (Which I believe a few classmates took the opportunity to repeat after high school.) Finally, the fireman who showed us how things burned.

Yes, it was cool.  But today’s school-age children expect so much more.  It’s simply the time that we live in.  Most (I can’t say every) children either own or use an ipod.  Most are technologically advanced and adept at using a computer and most watch at least a few of the approximately 800 channels of television available to them (as opposed to the three or four that were available to my generation).   One of the reasons that The Entertainment Company added a multimedia component to our school assemblies was to compete with and hopefully exceed what the kids see every day in the classroom and at home.   There are no more filmstrips in school, even a blackboard has become obsolete.  The assemblies booked today should be exciting, informative, technologically up-to-date, participatory and exceed the standard fare of entertainment our kids see on a daily basis.  Finally, depending on the school and it’s particular needs, most shows should be able to add educational value to the students school day.  After all, it is -- school. 

Last week I ran into an old friend and while we were catching up, she mentioned that her kid was starting college in September.  Of course you know the next question....."What's his major going to be?"  As I knew the kid from my days back at Sesame Place (see my bio on my website), I almost knew what the answer was going to be.  But I waited for it.  "He's going to be a Musical Theater major!"  She said excitedly.  I said "WHY??" and as I said it, I knew I probably shouldn't have. I continued on -- "...why doesn't he take accounting or something" It was like the words were coming out of my mouth in slow motion and you're watching them and as you're watching you're losing control of them wishing they would go back into your mouth...

Here's a friend of mine....it's her first child going away to college...is it up to me to stick my opinion out there to introduce her to sleepless nights of wondering if your kid is happy at college or not?  (Isn't that what these blogs are for?)  Anyway, as soon as I said it, I regretted it. It was not my place to judge or question the kid and after thinking more about it, I began to think that it wasn't that my words might strike fear in my friends' heart (the parent), but instead it was that I thought that any of us (including the kid) had any choice in the matter.  

I was a music major.  A music major!  What can you do with that?  Teach or ...let me see...teach!

My point is...I ALWAYS was going to be a music major.  It's all I COULD be.  Not a lawyer, a doctor, an actuary....no, I was going to be a MUSIC MAJOR!  And now that I'm acting and performing (which btw had nothing to do with my major), I know that the "kid" in question has no choice.  He's an actor!  That's what we do.  Act!  Performers perform and there's nothing else to do for us besides let us do what we do!  He'll make mistakes, he'll learn about the world, he'll get criticized and praised, be beaten and lifted,  But, that's what college is about.  Why guilt the kid (or his parent) into feeling like the choice to major in musical theater in college is the incorrect one.  It's the only one.

Just one bit of advice from a music major.  For g-dsakes, buy yourself a calculator and take an accounting class.

Would love your comments.  Share with friends.

So -- A friend sent me an email last week and when I opened it up, it was a  "screen" of her in a video email (sort of like a YouTube video looks before you open it) .  Now I guess I've received these things before, but since it came from her -- I opened it.  From a marketing perspective, It was pretty interesting, but unless I needed to do a "mass" email with a singular message, the service she was pushing probably wouldn't do me any good.  

After (briefly) thinking about using her service, I decided to see if I could do the thing myself.  I looked all over the internet and found that besides hers, there are several services that offer this as a "pay" service, but there didn't seem to be any software (free or otherwise) around that will allow the user to do this.

There are several software solutions that offer video emails, but they simply link to the video which is parked on the software makers site and it doesn't really make for a unique looking email.  If I got one, I probably wouldn't  click through.  So -- what I wanted to say here was,  YES -- I figured it out!

It's not the easiest process in the world, and its' not completely automated, but the emails look good (and inviting) and the click through takes them to a nice looking (informative) webpage with my personal video (to them) embedded.

It's pretty cool.  I've sent out two -- I'll let you know if they get any response.

Tommorrow -- I'm going to try to write about "acting!" Thank you! (Master Thespian)

D

As a special "thank you" to my new visitors, please enjoy a free download of my award-winning kid's recording entitled "A Kid's Best Friend Is A Dog"  featuring the hit song "Five Little Monkeys!"  

Enjoy it and share with your friends!  

The link is http://www.davidjack.com/djstore/dog.htm

At checkout, enter the coupon code DAVIDJACK for your free download.  It's that easy!!

This offer will end at the end of July.

If you know someone interested in an elementary school assembly, please share this blog with them! 

Ok, I've made some progress.  I've updated the template of my blog. (hopefully I'll be able to change the banner photo to something besides a plant!)

Now, I'm trying to figure out how to deal with the plugins for the blog.  I want to be able to post pics and links to videos and give the readers a chance to download some of my award-winning kids' music.

 There's always a chance...after all, tommorrow IS another day.

Check back with me.

DJ

Hi All!

Welcome to my new School Assembly blog!

As this is my first entry and I know NOTHING about blogging.  I'm going to leave it at that. 

I plan to try to find out how to improve the "look" of the blog, and find out how to share my blog more effectively.

As far as content -- I'm planning to post some interesting info on not only MY School assembly programs, but other programs I come across that look interesting to ME as well as other ideas that might be able to help out parents and administrators looking for school shows. Also,we can discuss trends in parenting, kids' music AND kids' entertainment.  All - right - HERE!

(that's just for starters...)

 Check back with me -- things can only get better from here on out! 

David

p.s. Looking for YOUR COMMENTS TOO!!!!!!!