Breathe and Be: From Practicum to a Growing Schoolwide Practice

By Leo Provan, Lower School Spanish Teacher

Last year was an incredibly busy and intense year, but also one of the most rewarding of my career as a teacher. Something that began as a practicum project for a Master of Education in Social-Emotional Learning, Mindfulness, and Yoga grew into something I knew had the potential to become much more.

Breathe and Be was my practicum and action-research project, created around a question that has continued to guide my work: How can we cultivate a school culture where stillness, compassion, and presence are valued as much as academic achievement?

Throughout the year, JK – 4th grade students were invited to experience Breathe and Be during Lead Time. Each class participated for a total of 10 weeks, giving students the opportunity to explore mindfulness, breathing, yoga, movement, relaxation, and social-emotional learning in a consistent way.

The goal was never to teach students to simply “sit still.” Instead, Breathe and Be gave children practical tools for noticing how they were feeling, finding moments of calm, connecting with one another, and developing greater awareness of themselves and the world around them.

As part of my practicum, I collected student and teacher feedback, observations, and survey data throughout the year. The results were incredibly encouraging.

Students reported that they felt calmer and happier during Breathe and Be, with 71.4% describing their experience as calm or happy. Nearly 70% said Breathe and Be helped them feel ready for their day, and 75.5% enjoyed participating with their classmates. After completing the full 10-week experience, 81.3% of students said they wanted to continue Breathe and Be the following year.

Perhaps one of the most exciting findings was that the tools were beginning to travel beyond the classroom. More than half of students reported using breathing or mindfulness strategies outside of the program with some consistency, and 58.1% felt that Breathe and Be helped them focus better. Teachers also shared that they noticed students becoming calmer and more focused.

The students themselves helped shape the program along the way. They asked for more yoga, meditation, relaxation, breathing exercises, and opportunities to explore mindfulness in creative and playful ways. Their curiosity and willingness to participate reminded me of something I deeply value about progressive education: we listen to children, meet them where they are, and allow their questions and experiences to help guide the learning.

And perhaps the most meaningful evidence cannot be captured in a percentage.

One 4th grade student reflected: “Everything we do at Breathe and Be makes me feel like I am in my heart.”

Those words capture something at the heart of this work. Breathe and Be is not simply about adding another program to the school day or teaching students another set of strategies. It is about creating space for students — and for the adults who support them — to experience themselves as whole human beings.

We are living through a time of tremendous change, and education has both the responsibility and the opportunity to respond. Academic learning will always be an important part of school, but academic achievement alone cannot hold a community together. Students, teachers, staff, and families need something deeper; they need spaces where they can feel connected, supported, regulated, seen, and valued in their becoming.

This is where I believe Breathe and Be has an important role to play. It invites us to consider what becomes possible when schools intentionally nurture connection, emotional well-being, self-awareness, compassion, and human flourishing alongside academic learning.

When education honors our shared humanity, it becomes more than instruction — it becomes transformation. And within that transformation is the possibility of creating school communities where people have the opportunity not only to learn but also to breathe, connect, grow, thrive, and heal.

And now, Breathe and Be is growing!

As one Lower School teacher shared in 2025–26, “I think it would be incredible to have the sessions every week all year! That way, the students could truly internalize the calm and focused feeling and know how to achieve it for themselves. It’s an amazing program.”

This year, Breathe and Be is no longer simply a practicum project — it is becoming an ongoing part of our school experience. In the Lower School, Breathe and Be will be offered weekly during Lead Time through an A/B class rotation, allowing students to continue building these skills throughout the school year.

Another Lower School in 2025–26 teacher said: “I love this. Having it at the beginning of the day starts everything off on the right foot. I hope that the MS kids will get to experience it too.”

We are also expanding into the Middle School, where Breathe and Be is being offered as a project for three quarters of the school year. This gives older students the opportunity to explore mindfulness, movement, self-awareness, connection, and well-being in ways that are meaningful to their age and stage of development.

I am incredibly excited to watch Breathe and Be continue to grow. What started as a question for my practicum has become a living program shaped by our students, supported by our teachers, and grounded in the belief that learning happens best when we care for the whole child.

This is only the beginning, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to keep growing this work within our school community.

At its heart, Breathe and Be is a simple invitation: Breathe. Connect. Grow.

And I can’t wait to see where we go from here!