The Bracken County Middle School did a school wide program on finding your Soul Shield themed after the Disney Movie Soul.  This was a new program with the purpose to better incorporate social and emotional learning for the students.  The program consisted of many different session for all middle school students. Some of the sessions included leadership, self-expression through art, group bonding, music exercises, learning social cues, reflection, and choosing your own personal representation.    They asked the Bracken County Family and Consumer Science Agent to teach a session on Self Esteem.  The FCS Agent taught 15 sessions on Self Esteem to all 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th, grade students at the Bracken County Middle School, for a grand total of 312 students.  With middle school years being challenging on their own, how students feel about their selves is very important. Self Esteem can measure ones overall mental health.   The goal was to help students learn what Self Esteem is, what positive and negative self-esteem is and how your words can hurt someone’s self-esteem or how someone can hurt your self-esteem by saying mean things and being negative.  Self-esteem impacts students’ lives and learning ability every day.   Students with a healthy self-esteem are better equipped to deal with peer pressure.

The FCS agent wanted a hands on lesson for the students, something that would get them moving and thinking.  The toothpaste activity was chosen and each student was given a small tube of toothpaste, a toothpick, and a paper plate.   The students were told to squeeze as much of the toothpaste out of the tube as they possible could.  It became clear that it was a challenge to some students to get the most out.  Students became more engaged when they started the task.   Then the students were told they had to use the toothpick to put the toothpaste back in the tube after it was all out.  As you can guess, this is impossible to get all of it back, some students gave it a good effort.  The lesson was taught about how our words are like the toothpaste, once they come out of our mouth we can’t take them back 100% we can say we are sorry, but still the words were spoken and the pain they can cause.  At the end of the week all 312 students received the lesson and much discussion was given about what we say and what people say to us.  This activity was a good example of bringing the awareness to the students about being careful with our words, as well as reminding them to be resilient to words other students say to them.  Each student completed the badge for self-esteem for their Soul Shield.