Ever since I’ve been in school, there’ve been hundreds and hundreds of lectures and lessons I’ve been forced to listen to. These range from pure fact dropping, to trying to teach us a skill. As someone with an attention issue, it’s always been hard for me to focus on exactly what is happening in front of me. As soon as I get distracted, the lesson leaves my grip. When you miss one connecting piece, everything stops making sense.
There’s a lot of students like me, who get distracted and drop off the lesson, before coming back and having no idea what’s happening. Recently, I think school has fostered a sense of hostility in the fact that it’s extremely hard to ask when you aren’t quite sure what’s happening. Teachers get frustrated if you come to them after class saying you had no clue what was happening, and it’s frankly too embarrassing to speak up during class, because there’s a possibility you are the only one who doesn’t get it. That’s not a feeling we can now circumvent.
After 2 years of online learning, a lot of students have gaps within their learning itself. We miss concept after concept before falling into a pit of despair when we can no longer learn anything, after not having this prior knowledge. That brings us to the question, on how to ask for help, when you have no idea what’s going on.
I think this issue is a lot simpler than often found to be. Teachers don’t favour general questions and therefore you have to shrink the scale of what you’re asking. Find the one word you remember from what is happening around you. Ask about it, ask it’s definition, before inquiring into whatever your teacher answers. Instead of just saying “I have no clue what just happened”, ask a series of questions to figure out what’s happening.
A lot of students are too scared to do this during things like tutorials. If this is your case, the next step is to email the teacher, before googling whatever is giving you grief in an attempt to figure out what’s happening. (ie. biology 20 CRS) for cellular respiration. Having this model when googling, you’re more likely to find exactly what you need to know. My only advice to all students would be to implore your teacher to answer your questions. Your teachers gain nothing from your learning and lose nothing, focus on your future before all social considerations, and that’s how you will set yourself up for success.
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