1. Read the quote and with the person next to you, discuss what you think it means. Do you agree? Why / why not? Be prepared to share your thoughts with the class!
Still not sure?
Think about this: what is a hand-break and what does it do? Who is in control of the hand-break? What happens to the car if the hand-break is on / off while moving? How can driving a car be like going through life? What are some “hand-breaks” of life that affect your “journey”?

2. What is Self-Esteem? (Student WS)
Independent Work (3 minutes)
Share-out to class

3. Each Group receives 3 or 4 of the task cards
In groups, work through the task cards on self-esteem and discuss your thoughts in detail. You can even share your personal experiences if you feel comfortable.

4. How would you describe the term “self-esteem”?
Your level of self-confidence
Your level of self respect
How assertive you are
How much faith you have in yourself
How you feel about yourself
How valuable you feel you are to the world
How emotionally resilient you are
How trusting you are of other people

5. How would you describe your own level of self-esteem and why?
How confident are you?
How much self-respect do you have?
How assertive are you?
How much faith you have in yourself?
How do you feel about yourself?
How valuable do you feel you are to the world?
How emotionally resilient are you?
How trusting are you of other people?
Can we tell what other peoples’ level of self-esteem is? How?

6. What are the signs of people with low self-esteem?
Don’t like themselves
Low confidence
Never feel good enough
Unable to make decisions
Struggle to stand up for themselves
Feel like no one else likes them
Feel guilty for treating themselves
Very pessimistic and negative
Cant see their own strengths
Feel they don’t deserve happiness
Blame themselves for things that aren’t their fault
Put themselves down with negative talk
Compare themselves to others in a negative way
Not proud of their achievements thinking they could do better
Take other peoples’ opinions to heart more than they should

7. What things can negatively affect your self-esteem?
Relationship conflicts: friends, family, romantic interests.
Big life changes: new school, moving house, bereavement, divorce.
Media: pressure to look / be a certain way / have certain things.
Peoples’ comments: insults, negative feedback, rejection.
Failing: bad grades, losing, rejection, being afraid to try again.
How others treat you: being bullied, disliked, excluded.
Stress and pressure: personal, school, health.
But do these all negatively affect everyone’s self esteem in the same way? Why do you think that is?

8. What are the signs of people with high self-esteem?
Like themselves
Self-confident
Optimistic attitude
Can make friends easily
Comfortable around new people
Proud of their achievements
Able to set goals and work for them
Willing to try new things and adapt
Can admit mistakes and learn from them
Are assertive and stand up for themselves
Feel and speak positively about themselves
Realistic about their own strengths and weaknesses
Don’t take other peoples’ negative opinions of them to heart
Try to solve problems independently but not afraid to ask for help

9. What things can positively affect your self-esteem?
Positive self talk
Celebrating achievements
Receiving compliments
Acts of kindness
Winning: good grades, winning sports
Exercise and keeping active
Doing things you enjoy
Showing gratitude for your blessings
Surrounding yourself with supportive people
But do these all positively affect everyone’s self esteem in the same way? Why do you think that is?

10. Self-esteem begins with self-awareness.
An important part of building your self-esteem is to have a self-awareness of your strengths / weaknesses and likes / dislikes.
What is self-awareness? Why do you think it helps with self-esteem?
Take a few minutes in silence to write down a personal analysis of yourself so you can begin to lay the foundation for building a healthy self-esteem.
Student WS

11. Self-esteem begins with self-awareness.
Now take a look at your personal lists and spend a few minutes reflecting on the following:
Focus on your strengths - what are your positive qualities that you can build on?
What are some negative traits that might hold you back and how can you work on improving these?
What goals can you set to continue building on your strengths and improving your weaknesses? Set out to do them!

12. Pride and achievement – reaching your goals!
Reaching goals helps your self-esteem because it is proving to yourself that you have succeeded in something you wanted to do. By reflecting on these achievements it brings a sense of pride and helps continue to strengthen your self-esteem.

13. Pride and achievement – reaching your goals!
Pick your top 5 achievements and design your own banner. We’ll then join these all together and use them to decorate the room to celebrate and be proud of all our achievements!
You should also use one part of your banner to set yourself a goal that you would like to achieve next and how you plan on doing it! Continuing to set goals and go after them is a key to maintaining high self-esteem.

14. Helping others also helps you too!
Our words and actions can have an effect on others’ self-esteem. We should be sensitive with our words and actions and use them to build each other up.
By helping others, this also builds your own self-esteem.
With the person next to you, come up with as many ways you can think of to help others. Be ready to share these with the class!

15. Helping others also helps you too!
Let’s start building each others’ self-esteem right now!
You will each pull out a piece of paper at random which will have someone’s name on it. You will then write one positive thing about that person – e.g. why do you like them? What are they really talented at?
These will be collected in and then handed back to the person you wrote about for them to keep – so make it special for them!
The idea of this activity is to build each others’ self-esteem and strengthen our classroom community!

16. What are some actionable steps to build self-esteem?
Surround yourself with people who like you and care about you.
Avoid negative people who put you down or treat you badly.
Do things that you enjoy, are good at or that make you feel good.
Reward yourself for your successes.
Develop your talents and skills.
Don’t take others’ negative comments to heart.
Be kind to yourself and speak positively about yourself.
Build others’ self-esteem with kind words and actions.
Learn from your mistakes.
Make good choices for yourself.
Take responsibility for yourself, your choices, and your actions.
Respect other people and treat them right.
Set goals and work to achieve them.