First Day of Fall Semester

First Day of Fall 2019. Things I have Learned so Far:

• Almost all of my students are working full-time
• Almost none of my students are on Twitter
• Almost all of my classes are well under cap (this is very unusual -- up until a few years ago, every class was at or over capacity every semester)
• None of them drink soda anymore -- they drink water, and almost all of them have their own refillable water bottles
• Lots of tattoos
• Not so much dyed hair
• They get very nervous if you ask them to draw pictures*
• They're very, very strict about grammar and spelling
• Their biggest worry is failing
• They've done a lot of cool things**

*I do this thing where I have the students fill out 3X5 index cards with their names, their preferred emails, and their majors, so that I'll have that information. I also have them add other details -- like what their biggest worry is, or something cool they've done. This year I had them draw a little picture in one corner, which was a source of great anxiety. "A picture of what?" "What do you want us to draw?" When I told them to just have fun with it, though, they calmed down.

** One of them swam with sharks. Another works with circuit boards for fun. Another studies cryptids. And one traveled to Germany this summer to work in a winery.