These are the first two questions a school principal, program coordinator, or parent in charge of booking an assembly presenter should ask about a prospective assembly program:
Is it interesting enough for our grade levels?
Is the educational content valuable enough?
The answers to both questions above should be “yes” for any assembly or field trip. A presentation that is entertaining but has no meaningful message is a waste of time. A show that is packed with information but is boring is also a waste of time. A school speaker should be extremely engaging AND impart important information in a memorable way.
Some school teachers and principals prefer assemblies that lean towards being fun in nature. They want smiles on their kiddo’s faces and for their students to leave the presentation with a song in their hearts. Who doesn’t want that? While other educators are leery of an assembly being too silly or too entertaining (with “entertaining” being a bad word in this context).
After presenting 15 different original assembly programs at thousands of schools, I believe you can have your cake and eat it too. A truly skilled and experienced assembly presenter will use humor, songs, audience participation, stories, call-and-response, magic, sketches involving students, and visual aids, as tools to teach lessons. We use these techniques with the end goal of teaching. A GOOD ASSEMBLY PRESENTER DOES NOT LECTURE.
The rookie assembly performer will use too much gratuitous silliness. An experienced performer will use the perfect amount of clever performing strategies, in various ideal spots during their show. Our goal is always to MAINTAIN THE ATTENTION OF EACH STUDENT 100% OF THE TIME.
In selecting the right assembly presenter, how do you determine if the presenter does this well? Watch their videos and get references from other schools.
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