ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orange County A+ Teacher is making it his mission to make sure none of his students slip through the cracks.

John Dunlop teaches psychology at Cypress Creek High School and says for him it's personal.

He chuckles as he says, "In my classroom I guess the best word for this is entertaining. I like to do hands on activities. I like to practice psychology."

He shared a video of him teaching his students about the Bobo Doll experiment. In the video he demonstrates aggressive behavior by tackling a blow up clown in the classroom.

Dunlop adds, "My classroom is very energetic. I try to keep it very hands on and I always try to always keep it relevant to the students.”

Dunlop says as a kid he too tried to figure out the world.

He says, "When I was a child I grew up very poor to the point to where often times I didn't know where my next meal was coming from and I was officially homeless for a while."

But school for him, he says was life changing.  

"So when I went to school, I saw my teachers and they kind of instilled in me that I could progress academically and I could better myself and get myself out of poverty and get myself to a better life," he says.

And he did. Dunlop tries to be a role model to his students now. He says he knows how hard it is to be a teen these says and that's why he's an advocate for their mental health.

He says, "And where I really see myself is in my students because of the way that my upbringing was. I've had struggles with things like anxiety and depression at times in my life."

Dunlop says his biggest goal in teaching psychology is spreading a message of mental health awareness.

He adds, "To me that's excellent that they're taking all of this and they're applying out into the world."