K–12 Programs & Training
Building Tomorrow’s Workforce—From Classroom to Career
Schools today are navigating increasing complexity—student well-being, workforce readiness, educator burnout, and evolving expectations around what students need to succeed.
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At Living Become, we partner with K–12 schools and districts to deliver practical, engaging training programs that equip students, educators, and teams with the skills needed to thrive—both in school and beyond.
Case Study: Integrating Social-Emotional Learning into the English Curriculum
Dracut High School English Department
Like many schools, Dracut High School recognized the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL) but faced a common challenge: how do you incorporate SEL into the classroom without creating additional work for teachers or introducing another standalone initiative competing for limited instructional time?
The English Department wanted a practical solution that would allow teachers to seamlessly incorporate social-emotional learning into existing coursework while supporting student engagement, self-reflection, and personal growth.
Solution
Living BECOME partnered with the Dracut High School English Department to develop a customized SEL Toolkit designed specifically for English Language Arts classrooms.
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Rather than creating an additional program, Living BECOME worked closely with department leadership to understand the needs of teachers and develop a framework that integrated social-emotional learning directly into the curriculum.
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The toolkit begins with a self-reflection survey that helps teachers establish a baseline understanding of students' mindsets and experiences. Throughout the school year, students engage with SEL concepts through activities, discussion prompts, writing exercises, and reflection opportunities that are connected directly to the literature, themes, characters, and assignments already being taught.
This approach allows teachers to naturally weave topics such as resilience, self-awareness, empowerment, adversity, belonging, and emotional regulation into classroom discussions without disrupting instructional goals.
Results
The toolkit provided teachers with practical resources that enhanced classroom conversations while requiring minimal additional preparation.
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By connecting SEL concepts directly to the curriculum, students were able to engage with social-emotional topics in a way that felt authentic and relevant rather than separate from their academic work.
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The approach created opportunities for students to:
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Develop greater self-awareness-
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Explore personal perspectives through literature
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Build resilience and emotional intelligence
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Strengthen critical thinking and reflection skills
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Connect classroom learning to real-life experiences
Perhaps most importantly, the integration of SEL into existing coursework helped create an accessible entry point for students who may not have otherwise felt comfortable discussing these topics.
Lasting Impact
The collaboration demonstrated that social-emotional learning does not need to be an additional initiative layered onto teachers' workloads. When thoughtfully designed, it can become a natural extension of the curriculum itself.
The toolkit continues to provide educators with a flexible resource that helps students engage more deeply with both literature and themselves, creating meaningful opportunities for reflection, growth, and connection.
"Kristin and Living BECOME took the time to understand our specific needs and helped us create an SEL program that was not additive, but embedded within our English curriculum. That made it easier for teachers to implement and more natural for students to engage with social-emotional concepts through their reading, writing, and classroom discussions.
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"What makes this approach so effective is that students don't feel like they're being taught something separate from the curriculum. Instead, SEL becomes another lens through which they can understand literature, themselves, and the world around them. I've been continually surprised by how students who may not have initially felt comfortable discussing these topics find their own path to engaging with them through the work."
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— Lauren Murphy Akashian, Ed.D.
English Language Arts Department Chairperson
Dracut High School
Students (K–12)
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Social-emotional skill development
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Communication and relationship building
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Confidence, resilience, and self-awareness
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Career readiness and real-world skill building
Educators & Staff
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Professional development focused on classroom culture and student engagement
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Tools to support student well-being and behavior
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Strategies to reduce burnout and increase effectiveness
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Communication and leadership development
School & District Leadership
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Culture-building and alignment
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Staff engagement and retention strategies
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Workshops to support whole-school approaches to student success
Living Become Professional Development provides teachers with valuable SEL skills.
Focusing on SEL Has Great Benefits
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Educators with strong social and emotional competence report higher levels of job satisfaction and less burnout.
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Focusing on SEL can help educators build and maintain stronger relationships with students and manage classrooms.
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Teachers who teach SEL to students report feeling more effective at their jobs and lower levels of job-related anxiety.
Living Become brings comprehensive social and emotional learning programs to schools and organizations that create a culture based in uplifting the individual so the entire community thrives. Living bold, energized, compassion, open-hearted, mindful and empowered is practice and we help create practices that allow communities to effectively support all members. We will equip you with structured content and the skills for your community to BECOME.
SEL TESTIMONIALS
PARTNERS THAT TRUST US
SEL Skills That Guide Our Work
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Self-Awareness
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Self-Management
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Social Awareness
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Relationship Skills
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Responsible Decision-Making
Living Become partners with schools to create and lead workshops, trainings and support groups for students and teachers. There is strong scientific evidence that SEL programs, like the ones we provide improve children’s well-being, behavior, and academic outcomes.
Our social and emotional learning experiences focus on the SEL skills listed above so our students and educators can achieve results in the following:
Academic Achievement
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Hundreds of studies involving more than 1 million students worldwide across PreK-12 offer consistent evidence that SEL has a positive impact on students’ academic achievement.
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Students participating in Living Become SEL programs have higher levels of “school functioning,” as reflected by their grades, test scores, attendance, and homework completion.
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SEL builds social and emotional skills that increase student engagement and lead to improved academic performance.
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The positive impact on academics lasts long-term: Years after students participated in SEL, their academic performance was an average of 13 percentile points higher than students who didn’t participate.
Positive Attitudes
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Participation in SEL programs, like Living Become support groups and trainings is linked to decreased emotional distress, more positive attitudes about self and others, and fewer externalizing behaviors and discipline problems.
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Living Become SEL programs enhance coping skills, resiliency, and emotion identification, which can help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in the short term.
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Students participating in SEL report an increased sense of safety and support, better relationships with teachers, and stronger feelings of belonging and inclusiveness in schools.
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SEL contributes to reductions in bullying and aggression.
Living Become Professional Development provides teachers with valuable SEL skills.
Focusing on SEL for Adults Has Great Benefits
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Educators with strong social and emotional competence report higher levels of job satisfaction and less burnout.
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Focusing on SEL can help educators build and maintain stronger relationships with students and manage classrooms.
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Teachers who teach SEL to students report feeling more effective at their jobs and lower levels of job-related anxiety.
Living Become brings comprehensive social and emotional learning programs to schools and organizations that create a culture based in uplifting the individual so the entire community thrives. Living bold, energized, compassion, open-hearted, mindful and empowered is practice and we help create practices that allow communities to effectively support all members. We will equip you with structured content and the skills for your community to BECOME.
SEL TESTIMONIALS
PARTNERS THAT TRUST US