October is here and with it comes an important reminder: October 10 is World Mental Health Day. It’s a moment to pause, check-in with ourselves and each other, and normalize talking about mental health, especially in schools, where our calm becomes our students’ calm.
This month, let’s focus on checking in with ourselves, checking in with each other, and checking in with our students.
Check-in with yourself:
Set boundaries
Try a 3-minute reset: inhale for 4 seconds, exhale for 6 seconds, repeat
Check-in with each other:
Use a simple opener: “On a scale of 1-10, where’s your bandwidth today?”
Follow with: “What’s one thing I can take off your plate or help you think
through?”
Check-in with students:
A one-word feelings check at the beginning of class
Teach a micro-strategy (box breathing, count-5 grounding, stretching)
Let’s use not only October 10 , but the entire month as permission to take one step toward stronger, healthier days. Your wellbeing is the foundation of everything we do, make space for it.