Huh.

On the surface, it doesn't seem like much of a punchline. But it just might be the one little uttered syllable that made me human to a group of kids. That and being drenched in sweat.

Those of you who have spoken to me know I've had a few struggles with some of my groups. Face it, I've just replaced a much-loved teacher. The kids miss her, they don't know me, and I am quite different. This doesn't excuse some of the little rudeness I've encountered, but it does help me understand where the kids are coming from.

So my show group has been one of the harder groups to "crack," if you will. They're normally much further along than we are now, and they are worried that they won't be ready to perform on time. I'm coming from the never-had-a-show-choir standpoint, and frankly, I'm learning how to run it as I go.

So Wednesday we met and I, as usual, braced myself for 100 minutes of kids not listening, or at least not taking me seriously. Wednesday we sat down to dig into the music, but before we started, I decided to discuss our theme, Sister Act 2, with the kids:

Me: So there are two main conflicts in Sister Act 2. The first is the Lauryn Hill character, who's mom won't let her sing in choir.

Assorted students: Yeah.

Me: The second one is the teacher and the students...struggling to get to know each other.

Assorted students: Yeah.

Me: [Deadpan] Huh. [pause]

I actually got some laughter from them...and it was a proud moment for me, because suddenly, the whole tone of the rehearsal turned around, and for once, I feel that I accomplished something with them.

Of course, in my previous teaching experience, a little bit of progress can go down the drain the next day, so I approached this afternoon with cautious optimism. Especially when I came back from lunch to find that in the 40 minutes I'd been in the staff lounge, the heater had come on (our school's system is a mess right now) and my room was about 95 degrees.

I figured this would spell disaster, as the kids would whine and complain and feel they didn't need to get anything done. On the contrary, it didn't really mess us up at all. Of course we were all sweating profusely, and fanning ourselves with the music, but no one made a huge deal out of it. We just pounded out some music and chose people to do the solos.

Eventually we moved to the band room, which is vacant during that class period and has more room for the dancing part of things. It was cooler in there (somehow, though our rooms are connected, Larry's is always cool and mine a sauna...), and we got started with some dancing.

It was a productive afternoon, and I'm quite...cautiously optimistic about how things are going.

And so ended another crazy/busy week, on a high note. As Larry joked with me after school, "The group that sweats together, stays together..."

The days absolutely fly by. My contract hours are 8:00 to 3:00, but I'm usually at school at 7:30 each morning, and I leave anywhere between 3:30 and 4:30, depending on what I need to get done, or if we have meetings, etc.

My colleagues are great--I am lucky to have supportive, friendly, interesting people to work with. The performing arts people, in particular (there are five of us) seem to mesh very well. We're all very passionate about our particular subject areas, but willing to work with everyone else, too. It's a great team.

And that's it, really. I have half a million things running through my head at any given moment, and I'm alternately very pleased with myself and very unsure of what I'm doing. I suppose that's normal. I'm sleeping better after a few bad nights earlier this week, so that's good.

The weather is slowly turning cooler, and the trees with it. It is getting close to my favorite time of year, as the days get shorter and the temperatures drop. Pretty soon all thoughts will be on Thanksgiving and the holiday season, which is my favorite time of the year.

Huh.