Here's just a picture of downtown, the Arctic Trading Post and the Nome City Hall with the finish line for the Iditarod in its off season home sandwiched right there in the middle. Today was the first day of school in Nome. I am always apprehensive about first days. I don't know the kids and I don't know how the classes will go yet--remember, I haven't really taught the same thing twice in a row yet. The kids come in and I then have to use the first day to really just go through rules and stuff. Today we as a staff went through certain pages of the handbook during certain periods. Boy, there just isn't really a fun way to teach that stuff. The kids were awesome though this year. Leaps and bounds from what I had and what I expected. It's amazing the maturity level from middle school to tenth grade. And my seniors are really adults now, aren't they? That senior English class is going to be a blast this year! I am so excited to be teaching a British literature class. We start Beowulf later this week, in fact. That class is my reason for being a teacher this year. And kudos to the sophomores. They wrote! I mean, I asked for a writing sample, to choose one of the rules out of the handbook and tell why it was either a good rule or a bad rule. They wrote! I get to read those tonight. That's a good 100 paragraphs to read tonight. Small sacrifice after seeing them do their absolute best. If they give me that at least part of the year, I will be happy. Can't wait to get into Shakespeare coming up! All in all, it looks like it is going to be an awesome year!