I find having my bike in the classroom is a great rapport builder, esp. with the boys. They ask a lot of questions. And none of them can fathom riding a bike 15 miles to school!
I've done the partial commute thing a few times since I moved further away from work. I make the ride back to my car longer, so i get a 20 mile ride in. However, now I feel I am ready to do the whole thing and the light will be fine in a week or so. My decision is do I ride my heavy mtb commuter with a pannier that will not require me to bring clothes to work before hand or ride my road bike? I am afraid the ride on my commuter will be long and somewhat painful, since i usually don't average much over 11-12 on that bike, esp. when it is loaded. On my road bike, though I do go slower when commuting, I think I can do the trip in just over an hour or so.