if you're around a bunch of people and you don't feel welcome in that environment you don't want to be in that environment a teacher has to be so humble right because there's so many again there's so many different personalities so many different cultures in that classroom right I can't possibly be an expert in all of them right but what I can do right is again I can give the students the platform right something that gets taken for gr is this idea that students are teachers as well right but how beautiful would it be if a teacher were to give them that Insight I don't know everything right and I won't know unless you guys help me to understand right and we're a team one of my big emphasis in the research that I do has to do with mentorship right and and mentorship is a big part of just understanding this concept of you know while I'm teaching I also need to be learning as well one of the things and I know we're talking about K through2 instruction right but bring this to the college scope for a second right when a college student first gets on campus right one of the first things that the campus should be doing right is figuring out how to make that student feel that sense of belonging right what we found and again I'm a former athlete as well as being a student in college is that if I'm not happy at this University or if I'm not you know feeling a sense of belonging at this University then that'll affect you know my my mental health which will then right spill into my academics right which for me it spilled into my Athletics right but you turn that around right if I do feel a sense of belonging well hey maybe I will approach my teacher maybe I will you know do the extra mild right because I do feel that sense of belonging right the same thing applies in K through 12 instruction right if I don't feel a sense of belonging in this school setting then I might not even want to learn I might not have the motivation to learn right which again trickles into other things right but right if I do feel a sense of belonging and I'm happy here then it'll seem like a more easier uh um kind of cohesive uh relationship right where I then can feel comfortable coming to my you know teacher that say Hey you know I'm not understanding this or I am understanding this thank you so much right and so we go back to the sense of belonging and we go back to all these kind of cultural uh initiatives that took that should take precedent right it's important for uh again a teacher that doesn't look like they're students or vice versa it's important for all of us kind of just to learn from each other when they feel that empowerment that goes a long way visit us online at ideast stream.org slw welcome for more web extras links to resources and to watch the documentary you are welcome creating safe and supportive schools a production of idea stream public media