Noteable Hess Family Events

Thursday night we were contacted by student body leaders at Saddleback High School, where Judd has been teaching English and serving as the yearbook adviser for several years, to invite his family to surprise him by attending a school assembly the following day at which it would be publicly announced that "Mr. Hess" had been selected "Teacher of the Year" for 2008 by the students. Kim and I and Katie and Michele and her Mom were able to attend, and Zach would very much have liked to attended had his school commitments so permitted. This was a "Renaissance Assembly" with a Harry Potter theme with lots of Harry Potter characters depicted on wall posters. The student body leaders said that the idea was to help the students feel that it is "cool" to be smart and to learn...kind of a learning renaissance theme. Reportedly, admittance to this assembly had originally been danged as a carrot only for those students with a 2008 GPA of 2.5 or higher, but then administrators changed their mind and let everyone in, probably to the chagrin of those who had worked hard to make the cut. School assemblies are sure different than when I went to High School. Back then the teachers had to try to corral the kids to make sure they attended. Now they have security at the doors to check for wristbands to make sure that no non-student trouble makers get in. They had a very loud sound system, coupled with a programmable, rotating spotlight system, topped off with a laser light system that definitely kept you awake, even with the house lights dimmed. It was very evident that a lot of planning and work had gone into the preparation for this assembly. After several cheerleader and pep squad dance numbers, Judd was called up out of the audience to play a game of "Are you smarter than a Twelfth Grader?". With infrequent assistance from a student 'helper', I think he answered all the questions correctly. After the top ten students from the Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior classes were introduced, Judd was called back out of the audience and announced as teacher of the year and we were led out from behind a projection screen to greet him at center court of the gym. He was pleased and very surprised that we were there to share this honor with him. We're all proud of him and glad that he's been able to find satisfaction in applying his talents to help others. We're grateful that he is being recognized by others for the talents and abilities and potential that his family has known about all his life. In addition, he is nearly finished with his Masters degree. We love Judd and are grateful and pleased with his professional success. It was wonderful to see him so happy. Here are photos of Judd with family and students.




Thursday and Friday night the Commercial Dance Conservatory (CMD) of the Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA) performed their year-end Student Choreography Concert at the Pavilion Theater in Santa Ana. Zachary's choreographed dance was one of those selected to be performed. He and another student also recorded lyrics that were played while the Senior CMD students performed their senior dance number at the end of the concert. Here are some photos from the event. The photo on the left is of Zachary and another student both receiving "Triple Threat" awards, due their abilities to dance and sing and act, where as most of the other CMD students just dance. Each of the graduating CMD seniors were asked to prepare a short biography and photo to post on a display board in the theater hallway. The other photo is Zach's entry. The video is a 30-second snippet of the CMD seniors performing their "senior dance" which they all choreographed and performed themselves. I am told that even though the video is large in size (57MB), that it should be playable by everyone since it does not need to be downloaded to your local computer.


Even though Zachary has many good friends at OCHSA that he will miss and even though it has been an environment where for 6 years it has been safe for him to be himself and develop his talents without the ridicule and teasing from other students (and pressure from teachers for this square peg to fit into their round hole) that he experienced while attending "regular" public schools, and even though CMD has been successful in helping him enhance his dancing skills and abilities, his parents are looking forward to Zach attending Brigham Young University where he can take his talents to a whole new level as he learns even more than he already knows the importance of developing and sharing his talents in a Gospel standards environment to uplift and entertain for the betterment of both performers and audience alike.