Viewfinder: James Monroe First Day

James Monroe High School algebra teacher Eric Wolven is going through the first day of classes with a new set of faces, mostly juniors and seniors in this class, and he has some good news: students won't need to worry about breaking their back carting a heavy math book to and from class every day. He just wants to make sure that every student has the book so that they can be prepared for class.

"I see this as a very good prep for college classes" says Wolven to his students, emphasizing the importance of the textbook.

Wolven is one of many regional school teachers and students easing back into the school year after summer vacation. 

While rainy weather may have greeted the students on the traditional first day of school in Virginia, many more teachers at the high school were upbeat about the new year. 

Lynn Oeters, a special education algebra teacher at James Monroe, was also getting prepped for her first day at a new school. This is her eighth year teaching, but this is her first year at James Monroe after transferring from Walker Grant, where she taught eighth grade science. 

"We're all kind of venturing through this together," said Oeters, impressed with the school's readiness on day one. "Everything is turning out great, so far. It's very organized, but this school had everything organized and laid out and well planned."

Barbara Dyer, a marketing teacher at James Monroe, still had some equipment requests pending before she would be set for the next school year. She reports that her class sizes range from a class of six, to a class of 30. But she only has 27 desks in her classroom. 

"I'm getting the other desks soon," she said in an interview. "I love JM, the diversity of the student population makes it a joy to work in this school."

Dyer also said that she loved the neighborhood feel of the Fredericksburg City Public School System.

"You walk into the grocery store, and you see everybody because it's a small town," said Dyer. "We even take walking tours of downtown to look at the retail window displays, something which I can't imagine doing elsewhere."

James Monroe has roughly 945 students to start the year off, 230 of those are freshmen, according to JM administrators. Fredericksburg Patch was on hand as the new school year got underway and returned with this series of photographs.