Big Ideas

"ClassDojo Big Ideas", also known as Big Ideas, Mojo Mondays, or The Mojo Show (different from the 2020 3D animated series of the same name), is a collection of 24 animated shorts produced by ClassDojo since 2016. These engaging shorts, each lasting 3-5 minutes, are designed to impart Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) skills to elementary school children.
The series comprises 8 main segments, each featuring 3 episodes, except for Growth Mindset, which includes 5 episodes, and Mindfulness, with 1 episode.
=Episodes=
Growth Mindset (2016)
Episode 1: Your Brain is Like a Muscle
Mojo gets frustrated because he doesn't understand a hard math problem, and he plans to leave school forever, until his best friend Katie teaches him that his brain is like a muscle
Episode 2: The Magic of Mistakes
Mojo enters a robotics competition and wins an unexpected lesson in the magic of mistakes.
Episode 3: The Incredible Power of Yet
Katie discovers the incredible power of yet from an unexpected source.
Episode 4: The Mysterious World of Neurons
Katie leads Mojo on a journey to learn from the secrets of the brain from a mysterious guru.
Episode 5: Mojo Puts It All Together
Mojo reflects on the meaning of 'your brain is like a muscle' after a setback.
Perseverance (2016)
Episode 1: Katie Discovers The Dip
Mojo and Katie decide to enter an art competition, but Katie gets stuck in The Dip.
Episode 2: Climbing out of The Dip
Mojo and Katie learn from a curious character how they can get out of The Dip!
Episode 3: The Big Show
The day of the Art Show has arrived. How will Katie do? Did she persevere and get out of The Dip?
Empathy (2016)
Episode 1: Mojo, The Director
Mojo and his friends put on a school musical, but face a big obstacle as Mojo’s ego gets in the way.
Episode 2: Mojo discovers The Maze
Mojo meets a group of monsters who teach him how different emotions can get in the way of his (and his team's) success.
Episode 3: Escaping The Maze
Mojo has learned how to escape The Maze and is now ready to work with his friends on the musical. But is Katie ready?
Mindfulness (2017)
Episode 1: Mojo Meets the Beast
Mojo messes up while giving a book report to the class, and now his emotions are getting stronger. Can Mojo tame his emotions, or will they be his worst enemy?
Moods and Attitudes (2019)
Episode 1: Mojo's in a Mood
Mojo is in a mood and learns from Katie that “moods come and go, it just takes time.”
Episode 2: A Bad Mood Storm
Mojo learns what it means to be a pilot of his emotions. How will he steer himself to a positive mood?
Episode 3: What Can You Control?
Mojo learns an important lesson from Amelia Earhart about recognizing his attitude and focusing on the things he CAN control.
Big Challenges (2019)
Episode 1: The High Dive
A day at the pool turns into a disappointment when Mojo realizes he's afraid of the high dive. Is there anything he can do to get back to having fun?
Episode 2: Taking Small Steps
Mojo avoids facing his fears until Katie shows him how taking small steps can make even the biggest challenges manageable.
Episode 3: Making a Splash
Mojo returns to the pool to take on the high-dive with the help of Katie and the staircase strategy.
Respect (2019)
Episode 1: The Very Important Monster
Mojo is chosen as the "Very Important Monster" of the week, but the special title changes how he acts towards his friends.
Episode 2: Respect Takes Time
Mojo plans to do a good deed for each of his friends to get what he wants, but is he missing something important?
Episode 3: The Golden Rule
Mojo learns about the golden rule, and with time, sees his piggy bank grow!
Positive Thinking (2019)
Episode 1: Fact or Fiction
Mojo has an embarrassing slip up and is devastated by what his classmates must think of him. But is the story in his head fact or just his imagination?
Episode 2: The Story Snake
What happens when your negative thoughts get out of control? Mojo finds out when the story he tells himself stretches and grows!
Episode 3: Positive Stories
Mojo learns how positive thinking can help fight the bad stories with positive ones!
=Other content on the Big Ideas website=
Aside from the animated shorts there are a few other resources to be found on the Big Ideas website
Conundrums: A collaboration between ClassDojo and Elon Musk's Astra Nova school which teaches how to solve a conundrum or "a confusing and difficult problem or question." in the form of short videos with various narrators for each episode.
Class Story Cards: A resource for teachers to use for celebrating events and holidays with fun illustrations featuring the ClassDojo monsters, that can be shared to parents or on a Class Story.
Storytelling: A collaboration between ClassDojo and the educational website Night Zookeeper to help teach kids what goes into writing a good story. Such as characters, setting, and conflict.
Heart of a Champion: A video series, which is now unavailable to watch on Big Ideas that was a collaboration between ClassDojo, NBC Olympics, and Classroom Champions that released in April 2021, and coincided with the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
The series taught SEL skills, much like the Big Ideas animated series, but the topics were taught by athletes from the Olympics and Paralympics. Examples include: Allyson Felix, Christian Taylor, and Chuck Aoki.https://corporate.comcast.com/press/releases/nbc-olympics-classdojo-classroom-champions-heart-of-a-champion
==Trivia==
*In a 2017 interview with Y Combinator. ClassDojo CEO, Sam Chaudhary reveals that Growth Mindset only took 8 weeks to completehttps://www.ycombinator.com/blog/its-surprising-how-much-small-teams-can-get-done-sam-chaudhary-of-classdojo/
*Big Ideas has an official logo, but it has never been used outside of a reveal trailer for Growth Mindset on Facebook
*Positive Thinking used to go by the name "Optimism" when the series was uploaded to YouTube, but this has since been changed
*ClassDojo has partnered with 2 Ivy League universities to work on Big Ideas, those being Harvard on Empathy and Yale on Mindfulness. They have also partnered with Stanford for Growth Mindset and Perseverance.