"Thing 10"

First let me say... I am down to the wire. Without going into a lengthy explanation because we are all busy, (lol). I'll just say that time permitted me to complete, but so last minute. I've been busy using the tools and learning and working on integration ideas that I lose sight of the task.
Second, I have enjoyed this lessons in Cool Tools for Schools; many many of which I will continue to use and implement into my daily planning and classroom use and collaboration. I look forward to future updates from Polly.
For this final lesson I look at many of the tools, but the two that stuck with me the most are Evernote and Scrible. Scrible will be a great tool to use with my students to encourage proper documentation for exams and written projects. How many students hand in papers without an invalid works cited list? Now, there is a tool to assist. I have used a different tools for document lists like apacitationgenerator.com for many years to assist. I'm excited to have another resource to use that will be beneficial.
And Evernote! Oh ya! I have been seeking for ages for a secure online place to add my personal files and organize them for a more efficient use. This would also be a great tool for students research papers, group shared projects.
I can't say enough how I enjoyed these sessions and look forward to further integration. Thanks Polly!

"Thing 8"

Collaborating, Connecting & Sharing... I have to say that this is something that our district does not do well in my opinion. I am encouraged after the exercises for "Thing 8" to work out a plan to more collaboratively work especially with my ELA team to create a collection of tools, plans, and collaborations for us to use.
The first tool I looked into was Google Docs. At first With most new tools I had a little trepidation about the usefulness for my particular situation, but found it to be a little enlightening. I could use Google Docs for a plethora of personal tools including curriculum resources, lesson/ unit plans, but also see a use for this in the classroom for discussion boards and literature circles.
I also looked briefly into Scribd and was pleased again at the prospects of document sharing abilities and thought this tool to possibly be useful in sharing curricular files across a district.
Another tool I examined was Google calendar; I create a yearly calendar with important dates for our district and would find this useful for instructors and student's in helping keep organization at hand.
I will continue to use these tools and hopefully further commit them to more district use as well.