"I do mental health check in with my students because when I was in school that was my escape.  When I was at home there were things going on that I had no control over.  That was very stressful for me, so whenever I will went to school and I will saw my teachers and my friends I would kind of forget about what was going on at home. As soon as I started working as a teacher, I started one mental health check in my classroom. When we started to do virtual learning, I knew that we needed mental health check ins now more than ever. In addition, I do random check ins to foster community within my students.  At this time I know most people can’t leave their houses, so I try to create an online network for them. For example, I might ask,  what are you watching right now to kill time? Drop the show and the source and comment on two classmates post.  Then they start to see that they have a lot in common and they start talking a bit more than what they previously do." -Antoinette McCoy ('19)