Why a group card fits graduation season
It used to be a notebook passed around. The problem was that there was only one, everyone had to wait their turn, and a few people always ended up not writing before graduation day.
With a link, the whole class writes at the same time. And everyone can make one of their own to exchange. You cannot pass thirty notebooks around, but thirty links are no trouble.
Two ways to run it
Option 1: the whole class on one card
Make one card named something like “Class 3-2 graduation” and post the link in the class chat. The simplest, and the whole class can share the same image later. With many people, the list is recommended.
Option 2: one card per person
Everyone makes a card under their own name and the links are collected in the chat. More effort, but for the recipient it is a page just for them, which feels far more special. The canvas comes out pretty here.
With a big class there is a middle way: make one card for the whole class first, then close friends make one more for each other.
It differs by school level
Elementary school
Young kids cannot run it themselves, so the parents' chat and the homeroom teacher have to drive it. Parents typing what the child says is the realistic approach, with the child's name in the name field. For the youngest, one line is enough, and a child who likes to draw can use the pen on a parent's computer.
Middle and high school
The class president or a few students lead it in the class chat. Everyone joins from a phone, so on a canvas the notes tend to pile up in one spot, but anyone can move notes, so the organizer tidies the layout after the deadline. Start about two weeks before graduation so it does not collide with exams.
University and graduate school
Cards made by a club, a society, a lab or a close circle come out richer than one for the whole department. With several graduates, make one per person, collect the links, and on the day capture it alongside the cap-and-gown photos. The last day of a prep course or a study group works the same way.
Wording for the class chat
A link without explanation gets skipped as spam. Say what it is, the deadline, and that there is no sign-up.
- “This is our class graduation card. Tap the link, add your name and leave a line for anyone. No sign-up needed. By the day before graduation!”
- “There is one card per person. Skip your own link and write on your friends' cards. If someone's card is empty, even one line would help.”
On graduation day
- Reveal in the morning. If it was a surprise, post the link and the saved image in the chat on the morning of the ceremony. Everyone reads on the way there.
- Put it on the classroom screen. Open the card on the classroom TV or projector during the last homeroom and the whole class watches together. Ask the teacher in advance and they usually make time.
- Keep it with the photos. After the ceremony photos, upload one as a sticker and the card is complete for that day. Nobody comes back the next day, so do the final save that evening.
A separate card for the teacher
Mixing messages to the teacher into the class card clashes with how students write to each other. Make one more card, “To Ms. Kim”, for the homeroom teacher. Parents can join that one, and printed and handed over with flowers on the day, it becomes a gift. Adapt the wording from the Teachers' Day article.
Graduation message examples
Graduation messages tend to end in “good luck in the future”. One line about something you went through together brings the scene back years later.
To a friend
- Racing to the snack bar together already feels like old times. Let us keep in touch in college, for real.
- Having you in the next seat made coming to school less of a drag. We are going different ways now, but I do not think that changes.
- Honestly, I did not like you at first, and now you are the friend I am most at ease with. So this is what they mean by you never know. Congratulations.
To a teacher
- I still remember what you said when you pulled me aside that time. It helped me get my head straight. Thank you.
- What you said during breaks stuck longer than the lessons. Stay healthy.
To a senior or junior
- Meeting you at the club feels like yesterday and now you are graduating. Finish the rest of school well.
- Thank you for looking out for me. I think it is my turn to do that for someone now.
Keeping it for years
A graduation card is worth more five or ten years on than right after it is made. But the link only opens while the service exists, and everyone eventually leaves the class chat. Share the saved image with the whole class and have everyone put it in a “graduation” album in their cloud photos. Thirty people each holding a copy lasts far longer than one class rep holding it.
Printing it for an album is good too. The saved image holds everything on the board, so for a big class, A3 keeps the text readable where A4 does not.
Things to watch out for
- Do not write detailed school or class information. Anyone with the link can see it. School name, class and real names together expose the personal information of minors.
- Save the image before the ceremony. After graduation the chat goes quiet and nobody goes back in.
- Make sure nobody is left out. The quiet ones are the most likely to see the link and scroll past. Go down the names one by one and remind them personally.
- Do not leave teasing, even as a joke. It is funny now and reads differently years later.