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TomTod’s school-based programming walks students through the ideation process using design thinking strategies and the framework of their own community. Students make real-world impact through experiential and problem-based learning.
Classes & Clubs include What If 101 (collaborating in the classroom), Creator Clubs (primarily after-school), and What If Explorers (elementary to middle school transitioning). |
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Project-Based Implementation of SEL |
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Student Autonomy |
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We honor students’ perspectives and input. While we design the framework for our projects, students lead the way. They get the opportunity to explore topics and parts of the community they’re passionate about.
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Inquiry-Based Community Connection |
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We cultivate curiosity in our students and provide opportunities for them to share their ideas to authentic audiences of interested community members.
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TomTod's Middle Schooler Approved Design Thinking Model
What If 101 (Classroom-based Programming)Using real-world topics as its landscape, What If 101 explores the needs of students’ local community, instructs them in real-world research and project management skills, and allows students to practice social-emotional competencies and 21st-century skills through developing, pitching, and enacting their own ideas.
What If 101 aligns with the Ohio Department of Education’s Social Emotional Learning (SEL) standards and can be incorporated one day a week in an existing classroom. Creator Club (After School Programming)TomTod’s Creator Club brings a fully-stocked Maker Space in a box to your after-school program!
In Creator Club, students are challenged to use their imaginations to create gifts, inventions, and art for the people in their daily lives like teachers, support staff, family, neighbors, friends, coaches, and more. Each week students unleash their creativity on a community-focused challenge that builds their ability to collaborate, communicate, and creatively innovate. These challenges provide students with hands-on tools and materials to create a ‘mini-moment of joy’ for some else when they give their hand-made creations and cards! What If Explorers (Transitional Programming)The What If Explores model bridges the transition between the end of elementary school and the start of middle school.
We all remember walking into our new middle school for the first time. This is an important, exciting and stressful time of life. What If Explorers aims to help students feel more prepared, more excited, and less nervous about starting middle school. Our What If Explorers model guides students through their transition at the end of elementary school and the start of middle school. What If Explorers prepares soon-to-be middle schoolers with hands-on and social-emotional skills to navigate their new middle school. Students practice their locker combinations and schedules, interview teachers and administration, and have a safe atmosphere that encourages asking the tough questions about middle school. Near the end of the program students share their learnings through video, art, and words of affirmation to their future peers.
Past and Present Partnering Schools            If you are interested in empowering your middle school students to put imagination and empathy into action through What If 101, Creator Club, or Explorers, TomTod’s Adventure Curators would love to work with you!
We believe in working collaboratively with our partner schools to create a unique learning experience that compliments State standards and reinforces critical thinking, communication, and writing skills already being taught in the school. For more information on bringing TomTod to your middle school, email us! |
