Big Ideas

ClassDojo Big Ideas, sometimes simply called Big Ideas, Mojo Mondays, or The Mojo Show (not to be confused with the 2020 3D animated series of the same name) is a series of 24, 3-5 minute animated shorts created by ClassDojo from 2016-present to teach Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) skills to elementary school aged children.

There are 8 main series each consisting of 3 episodes, excluding Growth Mindset with 5 episodes and Mindfulness with 1 episode, respectfully.

# 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!

*Unnamed series (2023)*
There is not much info on this new series so far besides it being mentioned in an Instagram story by ClassDojo

# 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.

## Trivia

In a 2017 interview with Y Combinator. ClassDojo CEO, Sam Chaudhary reveals that Growth Mindset only took 8 weeks to complete

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.

1. ↑ https://corporate.comcast.com/press/releases/nbc-olympics-classdojo-classroom-champions-heart-of-a-champion
2. ↑ https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/its-surprising-how-much-small-teams-can-get-done-sam-chaudhary-of-classdojo/