It's the little things.

Hard to put my finger on it, but there is something oh-so-fun in informing kids that you don't pronounce Jean Valjean as Gene Val-Gene. And that Javert is not pronounced Javurt. Sure, they still made their futile attempts to thwart me by purposely mispronouncing the names. But they can't touch me, or my prodigious powers. I've got your back, Vic Hugo (in spite of your overblown rhetorical excesses).
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Can an extra two minutes shaved off of time between classes make a huge difference? Judging from day one, I can say, "Yes, Lordy!" Last year a needed step was taken when the S.I.T. made the decision to jettison a fifteen-minute morning break from the schedule. That time was not only unnecessary, but also the perfect opportunity for the school grounds to transform into Friday Night Fights, without the boxing gloves. But, getting rid of break meant allocating minutes somewhere else, and last year that meant exceptionally long class changeover time. The result was less fighting, but more wandering the halls, being loud, and cutting up. This year we are back to only four minutes between classes, and additional lunch time instead, and this seems to have hit the mark. It was an orderly, smooth day.
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However, the day didn't quite end with a cherry on top. For the first time since I've been there, we had a pep rally to end the first day. For once the cheerleaders had it together, and weren't staring daggers at each other, and the football players tried to play things up. But the student body just sucks at the whole "being proud and loud" thing, unless it is to boast about, oh, scraping one's face because one tried to jump a basketball goal with his bike, using a homemade ramp (true story from today).