This TED Talk features educator Sidney Jensen recorded live at TED Salon Masterclass 2019.

Like many teachers, every year on the first day of school, I lead a sort of icebreaker activity with my students.

I teach at Lincoln High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, and we are one of the oldest and most

diverse high schools in our state. Also, to our knowledge, we're the only high school in the world

whose mascot is the lynx, like a chain. And with that being our mascot,

we have a statue out front of our building

of four links connected like a chain.

And each link means something.

Our links stand for tradition,

excellence, unity, and diversity.

So on the first day of school, I teach my new ninth graders about the meaning behind those

links, and I give them to slip a paper.

On that paper, I ask them to write something about themselves.

It can be something that they love, something that they hope for, anything that

describes their identity. And then I go around the room with a stapler, and I staple each of those

slips together to make a chain. And we hang that chain up in our classroom as a decoration, sure,

but also as a reminder that we are all connected.

We are all links.

So what happens when one of those links feels weak?

And what happens when that weakness is in the person holding the stapler?

The person who's supposed to make those connections, the teacher.

As teachers, we work every day to provide support socially, emotionally, and academically

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