My favorite student texts from Spring 2015 semester

Relief, at last! The sweat of herding college students through Spring 2015 is over. We’ve made progress along the path to enlightenment. The final grades are in. Which means that as I enter my first free week of the summer, I am nostalgic about the most trying moments.

To give you an idea of what my world has been like, I’m sharing some of my favorite texts. If you’re surprised that we text, well, it’s on me. Texting is much more efficient than email. If they’re going to be tardy or absent, I insist that they give me a timely heads up. That way, I can tweak the lesson plan and hold off on the meaty stuff until the latecomers straggle in.

I feel it’s important to be strict on attendance because students are incredibly busy these days. They carry full course loads along with working or interning — or both simultaneously.

Many of them are also juggling the stressors of modern living: family problems, chronic medical issues, personal anxiety. Very intense.

Attendance is usually pretty good for the first few weeks. But then, students start getting sick for a variety of reasons.

Yup, it’s disappointing when they don’t show up for guest speakers, which are a pain to arrange.

On the bright side, they know I really care about them. And I’m not really judgmental about their explanations — although the next one is my favorite. You know it’s real because it’s so over-the-top.  

The hardest part of the semester is the middle. That’s when I give out the worst grades. They’re struggling with figuring out what I want and how to deliver it. I’m usually exhausted at this stage too. Sometimes, I feel like a failure.

But then, like magic, the semester creeps into the remaining few weeks. We rally. And for the most part, everything turns out pretty okay. This is when I get the texts that make me happy. Here’s one from my communications course on public speaking:

And this is from one of the writing/journalism classes:

Aw!

Every semester, I learn so much from my students. This spring, I got a big lesson on the value of personal interaction. Many of them told me that our initial one-on-one conversations were scary. But we all found it highly useful. Definitely, I plan to do more private convos with each of them this fall.  

What’s happening might be a generational shift, according to a New York Times article that I found very informative: Here Comes Generation Z. Forget about Baby boomers (born 1946-1963), Gen X millennials (1964-1979) and Gen Y (born after 1980). We are now dealing with Generation Z (born in the mid-’90s to ’00s).  According to the article, here’s what Gen Z is like:

To start, they tend to be independent…Gen Zers are growing up in a healthier economy and appear eager to cut loose. They don’t wait for their parents to teach them things or tell them how to make decisions…Despite their technical proficiency, Gen Zers seem to prefer in-person to online interaction and are being schooled in emotional intelligence from a young age. Thanks to social media, they are accustomed to engaging with friends all over the world, so they are prepared for a global business environment…Gen Z is also diverse…they are often a mix of ethnicities. 

In other words, they are going to keep me very, very busy.   

How about you? Are you dealing with any Gen Zers or students in your life? I’ll bet you have tales to tell too.  :)