We are pleased to announce that the Toolbox development team has finalized a software update for Toolbox that not only fixes some of the issues we've heard about, but also introduces several cool new features. We are calling this release Toolbox 3.0 because not only does Toolbox have a new look when you sign in, but we have set the stage for releasing a new feature each month to make your planning and development experience the best ever!

In this latest update you will find:

• My Dashboard: Toolbox has a new feature that lets you customize what you see when you sign in. My Dashboard has everything you are familiar with - Create, My Documents, News, Tips, and My Curriculum - plus you can now have Course Timelines, Unit Timelines, My Groups, and more. My Dashboard lets you keep everything you need right at your finger tips!
• Prioritize Standards as Know and/or Do: If you have the Power Curriculum Tool license, when you are prioritizing your standards as Essential, Important, or Compact, you can also identify if the standard/objective is a Know, Do, or both. Once identified, the standard/objective automatically shows up in the K-U-D organizer for the unit and you can edit the text to make the standard/objective read as a Know or Do. Also, new for this update is a Know and Do organizer in the Course Planner (a tool that is available with the Power Curriculum Tool).
• The Unit and Lesson Planning Tool Now Requires a License: New for this release is the requirement of a license key to use Toolbox. All current members will be automatically licensed for an additional 12 months. New members will get a 20-day trial period before a license key is required. There are three ways to get a license key -
  1. Most Learning-Focused notebooks and flipcharts come with a key.
  2. Purchase a license key for $10.00 for a 12 month subscription.
  3. Obtain a Power Curriculum Tool license which includes the Unit and Lesson Planning Tool.
  And, for a limited time we are also honoring purchases from the past 11 months to get a license key! Go to My Licenses in Toolbox for more information.

Updating any program is something that takes a lot of effort to do - not only do teachers, trainers, programmers, and production designers all have to be involved at some point, but each change has to go through a rigorous Quality Assurance pass to make sure that it doesn't introduce any new issues (like corrupting old save data, for example). The entire process can take weeks for a simple day's worth of fixing!

Because of this, we're very aware that there are features that Toolbox Members have requested that aren't addressed in this software update. We want to make it very clear that we're listening to all of your requests, and actively want to get these features into Toolbox in the future - but when we do add them, we also want them to be 100% perfect, and not rushed just to make it into any specific software update.

Lastly, and most importantly, thanks for being an awesome community! There are changes in this software update that wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the well-reasoned and polite attitude that most of the members on Toolbox have. Thank you for contributing your ideas and suggestions! We look forward to providing you with great new features every month.