Show and Tell Blog

Pinterest is a site that I have recently discovered. I stumbled upon it when I was looking up bookmarking sites. While I haven’t really used any other bookmarking sites like Diigo or Del.icio.us, and I couldn’t really wrap my head around what a bookmarking site did, when I discovered Pinterest, it captured me immediately. I’m still kind of new to it though, and I will admit that I mainly used it to “re-pin” recipes that I wanted to try later, I am finding that there are so many resources on Pinterest that a teacher could use in a classroom. 

Screen shot of English Language Arts search on Pinterest.

Pinterest is like a virtual cork-board. Imagine you are sitting at home reading a magazine  or a newspaper and something caught your eye, be it an image or another article. In the interest of finishing your current article, you rip off the page that caught your interest and stick it onto your cork-board. This is what Pinterest is. But it’s so much better because you can organize and share your “pins”. Plus it really appeals to me because it’s so visual.

A “pin” is basically an image that you add to your board, and can be added from a website using the “pin it” button. Pins added this way will always link back to the website that you got it from. If I wanted to “pin” an edu-blogger, I would just add the “pin” using the URL.

Instead of having different pages, you can create different boards. For instance, i have one that  I devote specifically to food (because food is always good) and one board that I devote to eduction.

I will admit that I am still learning how to use this site, but I love that there are so many resources out there for teachers.  There are boards that are devoted to lesson plans, or craft ideas for the classroom. Boards for teaching drama, boards for strategies you can use in the classroom. It’s an awesome site!

One way I thought of using Pinterest in the classroom is that it would be a useful tool for students to organize resources for presentations, projects, essay and what have you. Pinterest would also work in collaborative groups as boards can be created to allow multiple users to pin to it. Students can also use Pinterest to create visual boards, kind of like a collage, of their favourite quotes, books, images, etc.

I've read somewhere that women are more likely to use pinterest, and while there are some men that use it, you don't really see to many of them. I wonder if maybe it's because the logo looks a little feminine? Or maybe guys become a little intimidated when they log on and see all the accessories and fashion related boards? 

Oh well, whatever the reason, Pinterest is an awesome site. You should check it out!