Photo by Joe Imel/Daily NewsStudents unload from buses today at William H. Natcher Elementary School.

Although this morning was Sarah Marcum’s first day as a teacher at William H. Natcher Elementary School, it wasn’t the first time she’d sat in a classroom there.

Marcum, 23, was a student at Natcher from second through sixth grade, starting when the building opened in 1990.

When Marcum graduated from Western Kentucky University in May with a degree in elementary education, she had no idea she would end up back where she spent most of her elementary career. She was hired to teach kindergarten at Natcher in June.

&#8220I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher,” Marcum said Monday. &#8220I never did think that I would be a teacher where I went to school.”

It’s not Marcum’s only connection to Natcher. Her mother, Alecia Marcum, has been a librarian there since 1990 as well. Her daughter’s first day as a teacher brought back memories of those younger years: &#8220I got to see her first day then.”

&#8220Now I’ve watched her grow up and come back here,” Alecia Marcum said Monday.

Once the school opened at 7:45 a.m. today, Sarah Marcum’s students trickled in, wearing the orange vests all kindergartners have on the first day.

She greeted the students as they came in, and gave them coloring sheets to work on while they waited for the official start of school at 8:15 a.m.

&#8220That’s so pretty, it looks like you,” Marcum told one little girl, who had colored the girl on her sheet to match her own blond hair and pink shirt.

Marcus and Sherri Anderson lingered in the doorway of the classroom as their son Luke walked into the room and sat down to color.

&#8220It’s really weird,” Sherri Anderson said of leaving their oldest son behind in the classroom. Marcus Anderson agreed: &#8220It’s definitely surreal.”

Luke, 5, was excited to come to school, his parents said. He walked right into the classroom without hesitation. After his parents left, he grabbed a handful of crayons and used them all at once to draw on the back of his sheet.

With Luke in school all day now, his brother, Ben, 2, will have the run of the house.

&#8220He’s going to get some time with Mom now; he’s never had me to himself,” Sherri Anderson said.

Getting ready for the students over the past two months was hectic, Marcum said. There aren’t college courses on things like classroom decoration, so she had to juggle that with reviewing and preparing the kindergarten curriculum, which includes reading, phonics, math and science.

Marcum was a student teacher at Cumberland Trace Elementary School, where she taught fourth grade and kindergarten. It was there she found she enjoyed working with the youngest students, and felt lucky to find her first job teaching at the level she wanted to.

&#8220They are always so eager to learn and happy to see you,” she said of kindergartners. &#8220This is the age where they’re still sweet and you’re their favorite.”

Marcum was also happy to be returning to Natcher, where she started in second grade after attending the old Jones-Jagger school for two years.

&#8220I was very excited because this is the school that I know, that I was familiar with,” she said.

Marcum has always loved school, and said that’s why she grew up wanting to be a teacher.

&#8220Every day is different,” she said of the job. &#8220I just love children and I consider myself a lifelong learner, and I just want to instill that same love of learning in children.”

Once the 23 students in her class had settled in, she gathered them on the alphabet carpet where she plans to hold her morning meetings.

She started by asking the students a question that may have been just a little bit for herself, too.

&#8220Can you believe this is your first day of kindergarten?” she said.

She talked to them about lining up, using the restroom and Rascal the raccoon. Rascal is a hand puppet that &#8220leaves” something related to that day’s lesson in each student’s mailbox at night, Marcum said.

There’s also Marley the monkey, who will travel home with students during the year.

The students listened to the directions, and formed a fairly straight line as Marcum called them out one by one.

As the class filed out of the room to use the restroom, one student stayed behind, a bit sniffly on his first day of school.

Marcum leaned down and hugged Nicholas Sopko, 4, and then led him out of the room by the hand, setting out on their first day, together.