Phase 2: Fall 2020 - Present
School years 2020-21 and 2021-22 were a near constant development process. Nic attended standing meetings with teacher leaders in the growing number of schools in our member districts who were using Be Good People school-wide. Feedback from these teachers, student and staff surveys, and other collaborators led to a stream of hundreds of updates to the curriculum.
Notably, in spring 2021, Nic chose to split the curriculum into separate Core and Intervention Editions, with shorter and longer lesson materials, respectively. He spent evenings, weekends, and breaks finding the thousands of photos, videos, and quotes included in Be Good People. Nic learned graphic design skills in order to improve Be Good People, and he has designed the many graphics and icons that populate Be Good People materials.
Creator & Lead Author
An example of the graphic design work that goes on behind the scenes. This is Nic designing the values symbols used across the curriculum.
Another example of the graphic design work that goes on behind the scenes. This is Nic designing the SEL competency badges that are used across Be Good People and this website.
Phase 1: The Spring of 2020
When lockdowns began in March 2020, Nic had recently accepted a job as the St. Croix River Education District (SCRED)'s first SEL Services Coordinator. He pitched Be Good People to SCRED's Executive Director during their first conversation about his new role. It was immediately obvious that the pandemic would have a significant mental health impact, and the goal of the project was to ensure that SCRED's member districts would have an easy-to-use, cost-free universal SEL curriculum.
Molly and Nic had previously created some SEL lessons for their students at the Chisago Lakes Education Center, and they learned a great deal from that work. The vision for Be Good People, though, was to start from the ground up, building something totally from scratch.
Raycheal, Molly, Courtney, and Ry stepped up to collaborate with Nic on what would become Be Good People. The group first met on April 4th, 2020 over Zoom. Over a series of work sessions, they hammered out what skills would be covered, at what grade levels, and how each skill would be defined. Nic began designing the templates for lessons, posters, and worksheets. Raycheal, Courtney, and Ry helped Nic write the thousands of lesson-specific scenarios and rationale statements needed.
It was a night-and-day sprint, but by May 2020 the group had produced the very first version of Be Good People. Initially, there was no Core Edition and Intervention Edition; it was a single version. There were also no Extension Activities or Community Building activities — only Lessons. Nic spent the summer of 2020 finishing the worksheets, revising materials, and adding the curriculum's first visual graphics.
Raycheal Zamora
Trained as a School Psychologist and Special Education Teacher
Molly Gavett
Trained as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst
Courtney Strelow
Trained as a Special Education Teacher
Ry Bostrom
Trained as a Special Education Teacher