Career Day

Part of growing up is finding out that most things are trite because they are true. The number one stereotypical "to-do" item on any T.V. show or movie is "pick up the dry-cleaning," and after dropping off my dry-cleaning for the first time ever I totally forgot about it. So, last night I picked up two pairs of pants that had been deserted there for going on two weeks.

T-minus 6 Days 'Til Kids...

This is gonna be quick because I don't have much time, but I wanted to update everyone on how the first week of training at Cheyenne Mountain went.

First of all, they have a sweet alternative to social security called PERA. That's right, I won't be paying ANY social security this year. Pretty nice huh? Instead I contribute to a PERA retirement fund that pays me when I turn 65 regardless of (though in proportion to) how long I've worked, and would pay me sooner if I were to keep teaching in Colorado.

Also, instead of paying a couple hundred dollars a month for health insurance I'll be getting a health savings account through the school. That means that I pay only $30 a month and the school puts $100 (tax free) into my a savings account in my name. As long as I use this account for health-related items they too are tax free. But, if I choose to use the money on something else, I can. All that happens is the money that I want to use gets double-taxed (once for being income and then again for sales tax). So, provided that you're young and haven't spent more than 10 years in the Social Security system all this a pretty good deal.

Now for the fun part: some pictures of my classroom.

Here are my classroom rules. They are all Shakespeare quotations. Just click on the image to make it big enough to read.

And here's a shot of the front of my classroom with my sweet bookshelf border (with about 100 actual titles of great books).
And finally my time-line. At this point it only had Emily Dickinson on it and no actual numbers, but it's progressing.
Those pictures are from last Thursday so I've made some progress since then, I'll be sure to post some more before kids arrive next Monday.

Group Participation: I'm planning on doing a famous quotation every day as a class warm-up, so if you've got a favorite you should post it as a comment. I can use all the help I can get.