Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 28/98) - Judy Whitford admits she had a few butterflies in her stomach when she awoke at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.

And why shouldn't she have?

After all, it was going to be her first day of school this year.

While the 24-year-old University of Lethbridge graduate has experienced a lot of "first day of schools," this one was different.

As she walked up the drive and into Ecole St. Joseph -- a school she had attended while growing up in Yellowknife -- things were different.

She was the teacher.

"It feels very welcoming coming back home," she said while her 25 students worked away on a class project. "I was born and raised here and was in kindergarten the year it (Ecole St. Joseph) opened... The school's become a lot bigger."

"I was a little nervous but once I saw the kids coming in I was fine... Everyone's just bright-eyed and bushy-tailed."

Whitford, who has wanted to be a teacher since high school, has been busy since she found out last spring that Ecole St. Joseph would be the site of the dawn of her teaching career. For the last three weeks, Whitford has been in her classroom -- sometimes until late in the evening -- preparing for Wednesday and the whole school year. And, she phoned as many of her student's parents as possible to introduce herself.

Now, there's a teacher.

"Hopefully I'll help them (and) maybe inspire them, like I was inspired, to achieve their goals," she said, adding it was her Grade 5 teacher -- the grade she herself is now teaching -- who first inspired her.

A visiting reporter asked Whitford's whole class just what they thought of their teacher's first day on the job.

Their answer?

"Good," 25 voices shouted out.

And then student Shantel Tymchatyn spoke up.

"Ms. Whitford is a good teacher and you put that down," she ordered.

Consider it done.