Welcome to the FAQs! Thank you for reviewing this information. I cannot realistically answer everyone's questions via my inbox (my work days are filled with district duties), so it is very important to me that users of the curriculum access this resource.
Nic van Oss, Creator of Be Good People
I strongly recommend that you subscribe to my mailing list. I offer this opportunity during Be Good People registration, but it is available to anybody at any time.
I send a handful of emails each school year—on an as-needed basis—regarding significant updates to the curriculum and to the larger SCRED Life Skills website.
A few times, I've made big changes to the curriculum/website, told the mailing list about it—and then received a flurry of emails from confused folks. Those folks would have a better time if they signed up for the mailing list.
I encourage you to use the feedback form (also linked in the footer of this website). I appreciate suggestions and input!
Specifics are very helpful to me (e.g., "In the staying on task lesson for 4-5, maybe you could add this photo to step 2: http://www..."
Yes, simply visit the Implementation Resources pages.
Yes! Please visit the "Pitch In" page for more information.
If you have any questions about contributing, feel free to reach out: nvanoss@scred.k12.mn.us
No, Be Good People is not monetized and I designed it to make monetization impossible (e.g., it includes many embedded YouTube videos and free-use elements).
SCRED is a small rural public district, not a for-profit publishing company. We allow other schools to use Be Good People with purely altruistic intentions.
Complete the registration form.
Read these FAQs, which answer common questions that Nic receives.
Use on-demand training materials and pacing guides to prepare teachers who will be using the curriculum with students.
After completing these requirements, you have permission to use Be Good People for non-commercial purposes. For-profit entities do not have permission to use Be Good People. Only non-profit entities, such as public schools and families, have permission to use Be Good People.
There are two types of videos embedded into Be Good People presentations: (1) YouTube videos and (2) videos stored in Google Drive.
If the video is still on YouTube but it's being blocked by your school district: Google Workspace districts can set teachers' YouTube access to Strict, Moderate, or Unrestricted. Open a browser tab (e.g., a Chrome tab) in "Incognito" or "Private" mode (i.e., where you're not logged in with your school email address). This is a helpful way to confirm whether or not district filters are causing the video to not display or if the video was actually removed from YouTube. If you believe that a video is being blocked by your school district's filters, the logical next step is to contact your district's tech department.
If the video has been removed from YouTube: You will see a message that the video is unavailable because it's been removed from YouTube. If you see this, please let us know by using our feedback form. Be Good People is managed by one person with many other school duties, and it is very appreciated when you help identify small glitches or typos. 😊
On a SMART Board, you may see an error message that reads: "Unable to play video. Error: 5." SMART is aware of this issue, and it is because of the low capabilities of the browser built into the Board. SMART's solution is to connect your laptop to the Board using an HDMI and USB cable. You will then have touch control of your laptop from the display.
The presentations are deliberately set to be non-copyable. Making copies is not permitted, under any circumstances.
There are numerous digital life skills curriculums available from publishing companies. If a district pays a subscription fee, they obtain access to an online module of non-modifiable lessons. From the outset, my goal for Be Good People was to mimic the experience of having access to one of those curriculums—but simply make it free to use. Aside from cost, in every other respect my intention was to recreate the experience of subscribing to a published digital curriculum.
If there are changes or improvements you would like, please use the feedback form (also linked at the bottom of this website). I've spent thousands of hours making improvements to Be Good People, most of which were driven by teacher feedback. It would be impossible to meaningfully improve many fragmented versions of the curriculum.
The restrictions that make the presentations non-copyable also make them non-printable. In any case, I did not design the presentations in Be Good People to be printed (e.g., they include animations).
No, because just like similar digital curriculums that are not designed for local modification (e.g., CharacterStrong, Second Step, Rethink Ed), the only way to add a digital response feature would be to build that feature into a custom software platform, and as a small rural school district that doesn't have its own custom software platform for Be Good People, that's impossible.
To learn more about student engagement and response options, visit the Be Good People training page and/or the Opportunities to Respond page on this website.
Yes!
On any of the Be Good People grade band pages (PreK, K-3, 4-5, etc.), you'll see a "Take It Further" heading with examples of how to embed the learning throughout the day. One of these examples points you to the "Discipline Procedures" page of this website.
There, you'll find detailed procedure templates that include comprehensive resources for reteaching (worksheets, etc.).
Don't forget that this is our full district Life Skills website, and the Be Good People curriculum is only one of the resources hosted on this website — there is so much more than Be Good People on this website.
Not at this time, and I do not have a timetable for if or when translated versions of Be Good People might be created.
From a quality control perspective, I would only embark on a translation project if several parameters were met, which include:
All curriculum materials — the thousands of slideshows, worksheets, videos, etc. — could be translated and released all together, not piecemeal.
I could directly oversee the translation project, ensuring that the nuances of all instructional materials are preserved.
A maintenance plan was developed to ensure that adjustments and additions to the curriculum could be translated with my oversight.
Because Be Good People is a non-monetized curriculum created by one person at a small school district and because it makes heavy use of embedded YouTube and short-form video content that is only available in English, the infrastructure necessary for a translation project within the parameters outlined above would likely only be available through a significant partnership with a non-profit organization and fundamental changes to the curriculum itself (e.g., the video media content used throughout).
If your district has a need for translated materials (e.g., to support a dual language immersion program), please investigate resources that are better positioned to meet your needs, such as a variety of published curriculums that are available in multiple languages.
This question comes up because when you click the "Add"/paperclip button in Google Classroom, Google Classroom wants to be able to make a copy of the file you're sharing with students. Because Be Good People lessons are non-copyable (see FAQ above), that's not a workable method for sharing the lessons with students in Google Classroom.
Instead, I recommend that you:
Open the Be Good People lesson that you want to use.
Copy the URL (i.e., www.docs.google...) of that lesson.
Paste the URL into your post in Google Classroom.
Be Good People is a locally developed curriculum created by one person at a small rural district. It is not published by an enterprise curriculum company, and it is not designed to make monetization possible (e.g., it includes many embedded YouTube videos and free-use elements).
SCRED is open to partnerships with researchers and universities that would provide the infrastructure for research studies on Be Good People.
At this time, we consider Be Good People to fall in ESSA's Tier 4 ("Demonstrates a Rationale"). It is built on a well-defined theory of action. As a district, we monitor effectiveness through our district- and building-level data routines; however, we cannot isolate Be Good People as a factor or observe its effects relative to control groups.
I designed Be Good People with these limitations in mind. My primary plan to support efficacy was to build the curriculum around CASEL's recommendations for locally-developed curriculums: the S.A.F.E. elements.
SEQUENCED: Connected and coordinated activities to foster skills development. Be Good People includes scope and sequence pacing guides that support schools in providing students with a meaningful progression of lessons and activities.
ACTIVE: Employing active forms of learning to help students strengthen new skills. Be Good People includes modeling, role play, multimedia reflection opportunities, choice boards, worksheets and mini-projects with fine arts integration, and many more examples of active learning. These active learning features share a great deal in common with well known evidence-based curriculums (e.g., Second Step, School-Connect, Harmony).
FOCUSED: Dedicated time and attention to developing personal and social skills. Be Good People includes training materials that support teachers and educators in providing effective instruction. The instructional strategies we focus on share a great deal in common with those emphasized by well known evidence-based curriculums (e.g., Second Step, School-Connect, Harmony).
EXPLICIT: Targeting specific social and emotional skills. Be Good People's Lessons target discrete, labeled skills. All curriculum materials are aligned with state standards, which CASEL recommends explicitly.
