What Is All The Rave About This Website, Pinterest?

As I was looking at some of the articles on technology integration, I came across one written by Edutopia about the benefits of using Pinterest in the classroom. I figured I would look into this topic more thoroughly. I have had many teachers tell me that they use Pinterest for ideas in the classroom. Personally, I use it mainly for finding quick, last-minute recipes so that I have the ingredient list on my phone when going food shopping. I also use it a lot for arts and crafts. The neat thing about Pinterest is you can actually pin your own crafts, recipes, etc. that you make up and you can also re-pin other people's ideas. A lot of educators use Pinterest to both (a) post their own ideas and (b) re-post other teacher's ideas.

Pinterest is a free website that requires a username to access. Once you create your account, a user can have access to all the ideas on the website. Here, users can manage ideas through different "boards" labeled by the category. For example, I would label one board "Education Ideas" or "Dinner-Time Recipes" or "Wedding Ideas," etc. Then you can enter what you are looking for in the search box. Ideas you come across that you like, you can press "Save" in the corner and then choose to add it to a particular board. It is a really neat site to collaborate with others about various ideas from travel, to time management techniques, to inspirational quotes.

Here is a picture of my Pinterest board so you can get an idea of what a board looks like. As you can see, I have different boards entitled, "My Style", "Fall is in the air...", and "Live Today...With A Little Help", etc. On each board I have pinned different ideas that fit into each category. You can create as many boards in as many diverse categories as you would like.

Educators in particular have joined the band-wagon and use Pinterest as a means to collaborate with other teachers and share ideas. The site is very user-friendly because you can search very specific topics like "5th grade math ideas" and the search engine will filter the pins you see to only those pertaining to your topic. Once you select, say, a picture that you like from your search, a user can then click on the actual picture and Pinterest will take you to the site for directions on how to do the lesson. This is a great opportunity for people who blog about education to be found. Say a blogger posts their lesson idea on Pinterest and another user sees their pin. In order to actually see the directions behind the lesson, a Pinterest user must be redirected to the blog to find the detailed lesson plan. Pinterest therefore gives great exposure to people who have their own webpages, blogs, etc.

Pinterest can be used for many different reasons in the classroom. Some of the best I have included below:

• Decorating your classroom before the exciting first day of school. There are ideas for helpful organizational techniques, ways to set up the desks in your classroom, wall decor, etc. Basically any topic you are looking for can be sought out through Pinterest. You can make your search very broad or very narrow, either way there are many pins to look at and get ideas from. 
• Classroom discipline techniques and classroom rules. One can simply search for specific ideas to see different ways teachers run their classroom. Searching for these ideas are particularly helpful to new teachers, who may not know what works best but can trust veteran or experienced teachers for advice. 
• Lesson plans or activities in the classroom. Say if you want to do a certain craft for the upcoming Saint Patrick's Day but are not sure what to do. Pinterest is full of various ideas for the classroom for different holidays. As I stated above, one can also click on the photo to be taken to the website where there is more information about the craft or activity and possibly the lesson plan to go with it. 
• Students can use Pinterest for projects of their own or to complete a lesson created by their teacher. You could have your students create their own Pinterest boards and pin ideas for their own projects. They could even create their own board for a specific project and post different pictures throughout their time working on it. For example, they could call one "My Autobiography" and search different ideas for how to complete a compelling autobiography project. Then, they could create their own board in which they post pictures of what they actually did. By doing this, students get to experience collaborating with others. They not only get to learn the process of searching for ideas from other people on Pinterest but also posting their own ideas and pictures to share.      

References:

Classroom Organization [Pinterest image]. Retrieved from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ac/27/0d/ac270d118b6083582f9c0cc0a80c86f1.jpg

Pinterest logo [Online image]. Retrieved from http://yakketyyakllc.com/whats-pinterest/  

Saint Patrick's Day Craft [Pinterest image]. Retrieved from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/St-Patricks-Day-Clover-I-am-lucky-Craftivity-1067562?pp=1