u/Deer_boy_

• Students who haven't attended all year and you're just now seeing for the first time, asking what they can do to pass

• Students who are attempting to turn in months worth of work in one day

• Students who have never participated or spoken two words suddenly start talking (half are politely asking in vain what to do to save their grade, half are cussing up a storm)

• Students who were doing fine two months ago and thus decided to stop trying altogether. So now they're suddenly failing with no time to fix it

• Students who are just now (after 4 years of reminders) realizing that they are too many credits short to graduate and are panicking

• Students who see the writing on the wall and have stopped coming to school at all

I've noticed that a lot of high school students have seemingly lost the "skill" of raising your hand and waiting to be helped/called on. I've seen freshmen who yell across the room for help, leading to the entire class devolving into "Mr. [Teacher]! Mr. [Teacher]! Mr. [Teacher]!"

The flip side is upperclassmen who don't ask for help period. If they don't know what to do, they don't raise their hand, they just give up! They put their head down or they try to look busy. You can approach them and ask them directly "do you need any help?" and they'll say "no, I'm good," and then continue to sit there in confusion.

If you ask a question to the whole class, they blurt out answers instead of raising their hands and waiting to be picked to answer, then it turns into a contest of who can answer the loudest and you'll inevitably get a student go "Hey! I said the answer too! Why'd you give credit to so-and-so?"

When did so many of these students stop raising their hands? Is it a lack of patience to wait to talk? Is it now considered embarrassing to raise your hand? Did COVID and virtual classes snuff it out of them? I don't understand.