Pinterest: My new obsession
What it is: Pinterest is a new obsession of mine. I signed up for the invite-only version a while ago but hadn’t done anything with the service since. In between Reform Symposium sessions I wandered back on to check it out. Wow. I know there are other tools out there that do what Pinterest do but none that are so immediately user friendly and visually appealing. I am impressed and addicted. Pinterest lets you “pin” things from around the web on virtual pin boards. You can create as many boards as you want and share them with others. Each time you pin something you can give it a description and tags if you want. Pinterest does the rest and automatically cites the source and provides a trail to get back to the original. As a teacher I love Pinterest for pinning all of those great ideas I find around the web visually. I can write a quick reminder to myself about what I was thinking when I pinned it or how I want to use the tool. SO great! A lot of times I come across some random craft or picture that spurs an idea for something I want to do for the classroom. Because it isn’t a tech-tool or related to education it often gets lost. Pinterest is helping me grab all of those ideas and keep them around so I actually put them to use. Very nice.
How to integrate Pinterest into the classroom: Pinterest is a great way to organize yourself as a teacher. Gather up all those ideas you see online and then share them with other teachers (who may or may not be Pinterest users…it really doesn’t matter).
Because you can share Pinterest boards with non-Pinterest users, this is a great way to share things with students. The resource could be anything- pictures, a website, a video. Create a board for every unit that you do and share those boards with students so that they can continue exploring and learning.
Students can use Pinterest too, invite young students to help build boards in a class Pinterest account. Create a board for every letter of the alphabet and let students add pictures that they come across to the letter board that it matches. Pinterest has a bookmark tool that you can put in your bookmark bar to make this as easy as one click! Students can put their first name in the description so you (and other students) can keep track of who found what. Like a year-long web scavenger hunt!
Older students can create their own Pinterest boards. Pinterest would be a great place for them to collect images that they feel say something about them-an identity board. These boards can be shared with others and added to all year. Not only will you get to know your students better, but other students will find connections they didn’t know they had.
Pinterest is a nice visual way for students to share their web findings. Pinterest even lets students decide if they want to be the only contributor to their board or if they want to open it up for collaboration so others can add their findings to the board. Way cool.
I have two Pinterest boards that may be of interest to you, one is Classroom Inspiration where I am keeping ideas of things I want to do with students or for our classroom. The other is School Design where I am collecting inspirational designs that I want to see in our school when we build our own building.
Tips: Right now Pinterest is an invitation only site. You can sign up to receive an invitation (I received mine in about 10 min) or you can let me know you are interested in an invite and I can get you on the list. See that? It is worth reading to the bottom of posts- VIP access! Leave a comment if you want an invite and be sure to use a real email address because that is how the invite gets to you.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Pinterest your classroom!