Tool Time at TNT
Every coder starts somewhere. The apps and snippets in Tool Time started as real, working code — written by novice students and one honest teacher who is very much still figuring things out. They ran. They did the thing they were supposed to do. But they were written the way first drafts always are: fast, slightly rough around the edges, and full of room to grow.
Enter “Al.” In Home Improvement, Al Borland was Tim’s sidekick on the show-within-a-show “Tool Time” — patient, precise, and quietly the one who actually knew how to build things right. Here, Al = A.I. — specifically, the S.P.A.R.K. method applied through careful, deliberate prompting. Each entry walks through exactly how AI was used as a thinking partner to take working code and make it meaningfully better.
This is not a before/after magic trick. The process is the point. The prompts written, the output analyzed, the iteration that followed — all of it is on the page. A student who watches this once and then tries it themselves knows what S.P.A.R.K. feels like in practice, not just in theory. That’s the transfer that sticks.
Your turn: Each entry includes the original code with a copy button. Paste it into your environment, run it, and vibe-code your own improvements. What would you change? How would you prompt? Bring your version to class — that conversation is the real lesson. Especially the prompt! Not sure how to write that first prompt? Meet your five C.R.A.F.T. tools ↓
Tool Time was built entirely through human-AI collaboration — 21 sessions, every prompt recorded, every decision documented, and yes, the teacher’s own prompts graded alongside the students’. If you want to see what productive vibe coding looks like from the inside — unedited, real collaboration from concept to live venue — the Development Chat Log is required reading. It is, in fact, exactly what a vibe code talent recruiter would ask to see.
Read the Development Chat Log →
Not textbook examples. These are actual working apps from students and teachers in the TNT community — shared with permission, credited by name, and chosen because they have something worth improving.
Tim’s trusty sidekick always had the answers — and so does yours. Each entry shows how S.P.A.R.K. prompting methodically improves what’s already working, step by step, with every prompt visible.
S.P.A.R.K. is the rhythm Al follows every time:
Set Goals →
Prompt →
Analyze →
Refine →
Know & Share
The improved code is the result; the walk-through is the lesson. We show the prompts, the output, the analysis, the reasoning, and the iteration — every step laid bare.
Copy the original, make your own improvements, share what you found, especially your prompts. Tool Time has always been a show about doing — now you’re on it.
Tool Time Entries
One entry per featured app — real code, real improvement, real process.
C.R.A.F.T. Your Prompts
Tim always had the tools in front of him. The difference between Tim and Al wasn’t the drill — it was knowing how to use it. These five elements are the tools of AI prompting. Every improvement you see in the entries above started with someone who knew how to C.R.A.F.T. a prompt.
“I’m building a p5.js sketch that draws bouncing circles” unlocks answers that “help me with code” never will. Tell the AI what world it’s working in.
Give the AI a character to play. “Act as a patient code reviewer” produces a meaningfully different response than no role at all.
Start with a verb: improve, explain, refactor, find the bug. The action word sets the direction of everything that follows.
Specify the format. “Show only the changed lines,” “explain it for a beginner,” “give me a numbered list” — form makes output usable.
“Don’t change the structure, only rename variables.” “Keep it under 20 lines.” Constraints prevent helpful-but-wrong answers.
Go deeper → Intro to Prompting • Ask Copilot Entry #019
New to S.P.A.R.K.?
Tool Time assumes you’ve at least heard of the S.P.A.R.K. method. If you haven’t, these pages are the fastest path from zero to confident prompting — and each one connects directly back to what you just watched.