Hello there, @kburkes ...

I did some testing in my own sandbox course.  I created a new page, put some pizza ipsum (who doesn't like pizza, right?) text in it, and then I added an image right before the first word of the first sentence.  I clicked on the image, and then I clicked the "Align left" button, and I got the following result:

I then clicked on the image again, and this time I clicked the "Align right" button to get the following result:

Is this what you are wanting to do in your own course?  Something else?

Hopefully this will help a bit.  Let Community members know if you have any other questions about this...thanks!