Pinterest:
What
is it:
Pinterest is a social
bookmarking site that allows users to view, upload, and share images, tools,
and resources that they have found or created by “pinning” them to a board. As
the name would suggest, people can search for things of interest to them by
using keywords and “pin” them so that they can access them easily when they are
ready to use. I like to think of Pinterest as a huge bulletin board that has
moved online and that many people can now access and view. Once you view an
item, you can “pin it” to your own board to view later. The board can be filtered
or organized based on particular or common themes that you would find of interest.
The downside to using Pinterest is that there are so many resources on the
website that you either have to know, or have an idea of what you’re looking
for, or have a lot of time to search through all of the things that are on the
site.
The site will allow you to
preview a few images that people have added or pinned before it prompts you to
sign in. If you do not have an account, you will be required to use your email
address to create one. Creating email address accounts is always scary because
you don’t want to get a ton of emails, which happened to me initially, but
after doing a little bit of digging on the website I was able to set the
account to no email alerts.
What
to do with it:
Once you have an account, this
is a great way to connect with other teachers to see what they are doing in
their classrooms. I have gotten quite a few ideas already for things I want to
start using in the beginning of the year next year. It also helped me come up
with a great classroom theme this year after looking at so many different
themes from other teachers.
Pinterest is great! One thing I would like to figure out how to do is "follow" other teachers in my school or somehow link our pins. I think it would be neat to share ideas and maybe create themes by collaborating with fellow teachers using pinterest.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I don't have a Pinterest account myself (since I've tried to avoid jumping onto ALL of the social media bandwagons that are out there!), I have checked out some of my friends' Pinterest boards, including those of some of my teacher friends. Some of them have created boards full of fantastic ideas for everything from classroom decorations to lesson plans. I may have to bite the bullet one of these days and sign up for an account since it's great for so much more than just posting recipes that you want to try!
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