Two weeks of an Almost-Teacher

Today marks the last day of my clinicals for my IMB semester. IMB stands for Integrated Methods Block in the College of Education. I'm not sure if it works the same way at other colleges like it does at UNCC, but you are dismissed from education courses for two weeks to gain required clinical experience (40 hours) in an assigned elementary school. For the last two weeks I have felt what it's like to be a teacher everyday and it has been so awesome and reassuring.

For IMB, I was required to teach a social studies lesson, literacy lesson, science lesson, and observe all of these subjects as well, including math. I could not have been placed at a more perfect school or in a more perfect 4th grade class. My CT's (cooperating teacher's) were so helpful and provided me with so many teaching resources- it was like teacher material heaven! I taught an integrated social studies and literacy lesson about comparing and contrasting NC transportation (4th grade social studies standards are all about NC) and a disturbance cycle lesson in science about oil spills. They're way more fun in person than how they sound in writing!

Weekly essentials: coffee + packed lunch

I was so nervous about teaching my lessons, as it was my first time teaching whole group lessons! I had my lesson plan "script" in-hand and ready to go, then I started teaching and didn't even look at it. I was so proud of myself y'all- the lessons went so, so much better than I expected and they flowed so well! My main CT observed my literacy/social studies lesson and went over her observations with me afterward. Her observation comments were so helpful and completely boosted my teaching-confidence. I am not trying to be braggy when I say this, but I think it's good to be proud of yourself, so I'm going to share. She said it's clear when teaching comes naturally and she could tell that it came naturally to me. I will forever hold that compliment in my heart because I was so worried I would have to look at my lesson plan the whole time to see what I needed to say. It was such a reassuring moment. My students turned in their transportation Venn diagrams after the lesson was over and I was so proud of their work! It is definitely one of my favorite teaching experiences so far!

I mainly wanted to write this post to share about my experience, but also what I learned about myself during these past two weeks.  

• I am an official grandma of my generation- well I've been a grandma probably since high school. I am not one to stay up super, super late or go out and party, so going to bed between 9:00 and 10:00 every night was probably one of the best things about these last couple of weeks y'all. Have to get enough sleep to keep up with those kids!
• Being called "Ms. Hatcher" is not as weird as it used to be! At first, I wanted to be like "that's my mama's name," but now I've learned to accept it. It comes with time.
• I really love working with 4th grade. I didn't think I would not like it, but I didn't think I would love it as much as I did either! Teaching 4th grade in the future is a very real possibility! 
• Teaching is so much fun, duh. Really putting in an effort to make your lessons interesting and interactive for the students pays off. I enjoyed teaching the material so much more when I saw that the students were genuinely interested in learning it!
• I did not want to leave those precious students after these last two weeks! It only takes a whole 2 minutes to get attached to them, let alone 40+ hours!

I had so much fun during these IMB weeks being an almost-teacher. Planning lessons and implementing them in the classroom made this experience so real and encouraging. I can't wait to be able to do this for a living!

Mini Update!

A whole, whole bunch has been going on this past month. For starters, I changed my Instagram bio to 'occasional' blogger. Let's face it, I'm not good at doing this on a regular basis. 

There has been some exciting changes that have been made to my college career...I found out that I will be graduating early! That's right- December 2016, I will be a college graduate! It kind of makes me want to throw up and celebrate at the same time. I feel like I literally just graduated high school. So much is going to be packed into this next year and I have a feeling it's going to fly by. Junior year has definitely been the most stressful by far. I am going to be in the classroom more this year and I have been writing LP's like it's already my job! Lesson plans aren't as bad as I thought they were going to be, but it's no fun when you can't actually do them in the classroom yet. For now, I will go to the study room with the white board and practice my "teacher presence" on Laura (roomie)- it makes it a little more realistic.

I have a couple of classes in Uptown Charlotte this semester and they are probably my favorite. Last week we took a tour of the city and we did SO. MUCH. WALKING. We went to some new places I had never been to and took a ride to the top of a hotel to see the skyline view. It was beautiful. It was really neat seeing all of the places I hadn't really paid much attention to before. I've lived here for two full school years and I'm just now doing this!

The roomies and I entered our dorm room into a 'Campus Cribs' contest last week. We found out Friday that we are finalists! That's pretty exciting. We have a dorm room "photo shoot" tomorrow and then voting commences. Be on the lookout for a shared post on Facebook about voting! We're all really excited about it!

Laura, her parents, and I will be traveling to Georgia this weekend for some fun! Laura got me Nick Jonas *fan girl screams* tickets for my birthday and we get to see him Friday night! He was so, so good in concert last December at The Fillmore. I can't wait to hear him again! We're going to the Georgia Aquarium with Laura's parents on Saturday and I am ready for that! I have never been before!

Anyway, I just wanted to fill y'all in on all of that. I'm sure, actually I know, I'm leaving out a bunch of things that have happened, but I can't think of anything to write it out. I hope y'all are having a great week so far!

Graphic Tee Fever

So, one of my favorite things as of late are graphic tees. I don't mean like middle school Aero short sleeves, but cute ones with little quotes or sayings on them. I mostly find them at TJ Maxx or Ross and I just love them when I see them!

I'm going to share a few with you that I have (mostly want) and where you can find them! This trend just makes me so happy.

1. I'd Rather Be Watching Gilmore Girls

I do happen to own (and LOVE) this sweatshirt. Arsenic and Lace is such a cute shop and you can scoop this one up for $37! (click here)

2. Shoes Speak Louder Than Words

I also have this little number. I love, love, love it and it's so easy to dress up or down. This one is from a company called Cents of Style and what they represent and who they are is amazing! I really encourage you to check them out. They have awesome sales weekly and there's always an incredible deal on Friday's! (click here)

3. Mermaids Have More Fun

I do not have this tank, but I want it so badly! Anything that has to do with mermaids is for me. Obviously I was given the wrong set of legs when I should've gotten a tail, but I've come to terms with it. I can live vicariously through this cute tank! (click here)

4. But First, Coffee

This one is also not a part of my collection, but it's so simple and cute. It really does describe the beginning of my day and the best part is...it's on sale right now! (click here)

5. Y'all

Y'all, I can't with this cute tee! It's from the Junk Gypsy Co. and I think it's adorable. I love the paisley pattern in the background too! (click here)

I just think anyone can pull this trend off with a pair of boyfriend jeans or skinnies! They are so easily dressed up or down and you can grab and go while getting dressed quickly. I promise if you pick one up, you'll have a closet full in no time! Guilty.

Dorm Room Decorating!

So, I have been the epitome of a bad blogger. I haven't posted one single thing since May and I am not proud of it- but I have had one of the best summers of my life! I would make a summer recap post, but oh my I don't want to torture you with about 5,000,001 pictures. However, it was one for the books (I love some clichés.)

I gave you all a peek of what my summer would look like in May and it was even better than I thought it would be! I began working two new jobs, a CIS Group Leader and a barista at my favorite coffee shop at home, they both turned out to be incredible. I can definitely tell that I learned so many different lessons about teaching through my CIS job and I know it will help me in the future with my degree! Working with three of my very best friends at the coffee shop was not something that I had expected to be doing at the beginning of summer, but I was so excited for the opportunity! It's so hard not seeing their faces everyday now that I am back at school. Summer went by so fast this year, as it does every year!

Speaking of school, I have officially started my Junior year of college at UNCC! I'm all moved in and settled. Last year, one of my most viewed posts was Dorm Room DIY's, this year, however, we were able to upgrade into a little better building so Laura (roomie) and I didn't have to put in as much effort to give the place a face-lift. We did do a few DIY projects that I will share with y'all and we decorated a ton!

I'll start with the living room. It's the room you first see when you walk into our apartment and I have to say that it makes the place feel so homey. We put a lot of effort into making it look nice this year and it paid off! One of our goals was to make everything flow together, mainly in the kitchen and living room.

Laura gets basically all of the credit for this space. She bought all of the decorations and I was just there to help put the space together. I think it turned out so beautifully! We were able to reuse the coffee table, side table, table lamp, and place mats from our apartment last year.

Laura scored this awesome chair at Habitat for $10! It fits so well in the space. The throw pillows, throw blanket, curtains, and standing lamp came from Target.

After I took the pictures above, we made initials of all the roommates to hang over the couch. They were created to match the place mats and one of the walls I will talk about below!

One of our first DIY projects in the new place was on the wall right as you come into the apartment. It was this plain white wall that was really drab and we turned it into something fabulous! Electrical tape is not just used for wires- it can also be used as faux paint stripes if you're really creative! This whole wall was done with 1 roll of tape for about $5.

We did a little decorating in the kitchen next. Our kitchen was not decorated in any special way last year, except for a rug that just collected crumbs mostly. This year, we wanted it to flow right into the living space. Laura found these precious prints on Pinterest and picked up a few frames. I think it creates almost a window-like area!

Naturally, my favorite print! All of them flow into the colors of the living room space. I love looking at these when I wash dishes. They're so fun!

Now, onto my favorite room (and that may be a biased statement.) Over the summer, I put a lot of thought into what I wanted my room to look like this year. I know that may sound silly because it's just a college dorm, but if you know me (and my mom) then you know we were both born to decorate. I feel like I need to be comfy in the place I'm staying or I won't be happy. Your environment reflects your personality and I think this room is a spitting image of me and all of my favorite things: gold decals, pictures, and navy blue. Okay, well maybe not all of my favorite things, but you get the point!

I reused my ruched bedspread from freshman year and my stool and a few decorations from last year. I saw these triangle wall decals online one day, but they were really expensive. I found the ones on this wall from Etsy for about $15 and there were 40 in a pack. I still have some leftover!

These throw pillow covers are from Groopdealz, if you haven't heard of the website, then you need to go there right now! I mean it, come back to this post later and finish it if you have to. Anyway, they were all about or under $10. The 'hello' pillow is from Hobby Lobby, my own tangible Pinterest.

I just love, love, love everything about this room! It is by far my best dorm room yet. Not that the others have been bad, I've just gotten better at decorating and planning! I couldn't have finished this room by myself, my mom was a HUGE help in the whole decorating process. I'm so thankful for her and her ideas!

Laura brought some wooden rectangles with her to do some DIYing with and we both made key hangers with them. They turned out so cute! I had some little picture loop hooks, I have no idea what they're actually called, that I twisted into the top to hang it on the wall with. 

One of the last things we decorated was the sink area in the bathroom. We reused the blue 'wash' letters from the apartment last year. We added the loop hooks to the top of them this year for an extra touch. They turned out really cute in the space! We also reused the blue bathmats from last year as well.

Laura, Kirsten, and Dominique's rooms are all so cute as well! I'm so excited for this year and our little apartment. It really does feel like home away from home. I hope everyone's first day of class went well and I will post again soon(er rather than later)!

Summer Updates + Plans!

To say that I have been a bad, pretty inconsistent blogger would be very accurate. There has been so many things going on since my last post, but let's be real- I just haven't wanted to pick up my computer and invest some time into a new post. But today, that changes!

A quick summary since my last post:

We added a new member to the Hatcher family! Everyone say "hi" to (the highly spoiled, not quite potty-trained) Harley! My dad had recently gotten a Harley Davidson motorcycle, so mom said she wanted a 'Harley' too, but she put a different twist on it! Harley was my mom's 25th anniversary present from daddy. She's an adorably cute (which helps her get away with a lot) 4 month old Chihuahua! 

My big brother graduated from NC State! I'm so, so proud of him! He has moved from Raleigh to Wilmington and has started his big boy job there. You go big bro!

I have moved out of my dorm in Charlotte and can officially call myself a Junior in college! I was in the middle of taking an 'after' picture of my dorm room all cleaned and moved out when my phone died. I was a little salty about it, but I was also very ready to come home so I didn't stick around and wait for my phone to charge to snap a new picture. I did however have to leave my best friend and roomie, Laura. That was so tough, but I know we will be making road trips to see each other this summer!

Laura's last visit to the beach!

I had an interview for a summer camp group leader position for the CIS program in my hometown and I received the job! I'm so excited about it. I officially start in June and can't wait to get to know all of my little summer camp go-ers! 

One very exciting thing that has happened is that I was asked to be a BRIDESMAID in Sam's wedding! I am too, too excited for it! Sam is going to be the most beautiful bride with an awesome bridal party, but I may be a little biased. We're all planning a Charleston trip in August that I'm already mentally packing for- so. much. excitement!

These were a couple of screenshots from a video that was taken by ML! I love, love, love both of them so much and can't wait to partake in all of the bridal party festivities!

We also took advantage of the beach while Sam and MaryLou were off of work over the weekend. The perfect opportunity for a #bridalparty selfie! 

That pretty much catches you all up on the most important things that have happened since March (even though I'm positive I have forgotten some things). Oh yeah, there is one more thing!

Today, I was informed that I received a second summer job at Surf & Java in OIB! I'm too excited to be working with the two beauts in the picture above. I can't wait to start this week!

I hope everyone's summer is going so well so far, at least for everyone who is already out of school!

Spring Break: Part Two!

So, I left off with Laura and I beginning to travel to Washington, DC.

Let me tell you, it was a struggle from the very start. It had snowed the night before in NY, so the snowplow truck had packed snow all around my car when it was scraping the roads. We were staring at my car trying to figure out how we were going to get out of the mess. It was Laura's turn to drive in the city (my nerves were shot from driving before!) and it was up to her to get us out of the parking spot! A nice man stopped by my car and told her to back up onto the little hill of snow behind her, so that it would give her momentum when she put it in drive. It worked! Y'all, I had to chase her down the street to get back in the car! That was about the only humorous thing that happened that day.

We made it out of the city and were slowly, but surely making our way down to Washington, DC. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to get there and the sky was so gloomy. We were both so exhausted and the weather was making it hard to be excited about our visit. It started to sprinkle once we got parked, so we cut our trip a little short by only seeing the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, and a glimpse of the White House.

Everything was beautiful to see again, but we were so ready to get back on the road to Haymarket, Virginia. Laura knew someone we could stay with there and that would be our halfway point before heading back to North Carolina. However, since we were moving southward, we both starting craving some sweet tea that we weren't able to get all week! We treated ourselves to Outback before continuing our drive, it was delicious and much needed.

We made it to Virginia only to find out that the weather was supposed to be horrible the next day. Sure enough, we woke up to a winter wonderland. It was gorgeous and crappy all at the same time. It was pouring down snow and we still had another 6 hours to go before we made it home. We were frustrated to say the least. It turned out that we didn't even know what frustrated was yet....

About an hour down the road, I was ready to make a pit-stop and stretch. The weather was stressing us out because we had never really experienced those kind of conditions before. We had just saw a van spin-out in front of us, so the next gas station was our next stop. As soon as I said, "I think I'm going to stop at the next rest station," my driver's side windshield wiper went limp and stopped working! Y'all, words cannot describe how I felt in that moment. Furious, because we were on our way home. Scared, because I couldn't see out of the windshield. Tired, angry, annoyed....blah, blah, blah. It was awful. I pulled over on the side of the highway to see if there was anything we could see or do about it.

I called my dad and told him was was going on. Thankfully, we were directly across from a gas station. I waited until no traffic was coming and pulled through into the parking lot. We got out and ran inside to plan our next step. That moment was such a God thing because we walked in to the most friendly and caring environment! The three ladies behind the counter were such blessings to us. They gave us coffee and were calling local auto parts stores to see if they stocked my type of wiper. It felt like we had knew these ladies our whole lives! We ended up calling Triple A (I know what you're thinking, for a windshield wiper?). Y'all, we were in the middle of nowhere and we had no idea what we were going to do. Both sets of parents were hours away and it was pouring snow. We were completely stuck.The Triple A guy towed us to the next service station. Big surprise, they were closed due to the weather. 

The ladies from the gas station before got in touch with us and sent their husbands to the service station! What an amazing and selfless thing. We were complete strangers to them and they were so generous and kind to us. Mr. Lee and Mr. Todd took my wiper off and discovered it was entirely stripped on the inside. Mr. Lee took the passenger side wiper and switched it over to the driver's side. This let us get to the next town over to grab a hotel room. Our trip was extended another stinking day. We were SO over the snow by this time!

The next morning we were up and ready to get out of Virginia, we were still a good ways from home. It was smooth sailing from Madison, Virginia to home. We made it back safely and I am still one wiper short. Luckily, I'm going home this weekend to get it fixed! The trip was one for the books, at least the book of half fun, half completely outrageous events. At the end of the day, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat! Well...maybe minus the snow. 

Windshield, featuring my ratch one wiper that doesn't even lay down straight.

I hope everyone's spring break was just as eventful and awesome. Hopefully, y'all had a little better luck than we did. But, we made some amazing new friends that even checked on us when we got back home! If you're ever in Madison, Virginia, know that you're in a good place!