I have a personal tradition of walking through the school each year on the night before the first day of school. I am not quite sure why I started doing this. There is an ancient naval tradition of a ship's captain inspecting each part of the ship on the eve of a battle. I suspect that such captains do this in order to have their finger on the pulse of their ship and crew. Of course we are not about to head into battle, on the contrary, we are about to begin a new year of learning and growth. Nonetheless, as I walked each hallway and stopped in every classroom this evening, I could not help but think about the students and teachers who would be in these places in the morning. An entire new school year is stretching out before us; what an exciting time! I left school this evening with a renewed sense of excitement for what the 2014-2015 school year will bring. Welcome back to each of you; we missed you!

Here are a few photos from my "eve of the school year" walk: