Keeping a journal is a common method teachers use to help elementary school students increase their level of self esteem. Teachers encourage students to write in their journal daily; this may be free writing exercises, poems, drawings, or reactions to activities the teacher has orchestrated during class time. Students typically have to hand in their journals for inspection periodically, although teachers will only read the entries students permit them to read. Students can fold over pages they wish to keep private. Keeping a journal enhances a child's self esteem because it forces him to acknowledge and record their thoughts and emotions continually. By paying attention to how they feel, students gradually realize the importance of their own traits and opinions.
Classmate feedback is another common method of boosting adolescent self esteem. Students can offer feedback many ways. In one example, students break into pairs on the first day of school and interview one another. At the close of the session, students introduce each other to the class using interesting facts they learned during the interview. Students can also break into groups and list a half-dozen positive traits about everyone in the group and then share those traits with the class. In another example, students can draw a picture of themselves or that represents themselves and hang it on the classroom wall. Students then go to one another's picture and write down positive traits about one another.
Art projects help enhance self esteem in elementary students, both from the inherent feeling of accomplishment involved in completion, as well as the subject matter. Students can draw a self-portrait or put together a collage of their favorite traits and activities. For a variation on the self-portrait idea, students can split their face down the middle and draw one half that represents how they see themselves and the other half how they think people see them.
Teachers often ask students to take personal inventory in an effort to keep their self-esteem high. Students can write lists about their likes and dislikes, traits that describe themselves, best and worst moments, hopes and dreams, accomplishments, favorite and least favorite subjects, family members and any other information that helps them realize how unique and special they are.