Week 6: Using Pinterest for teaching and learning

            I had already signed on to Pinterest before this week’s assignment. I love to spend free time on Pinterest to look for great ideas shared by other teachers. I had not created my own board before so that was definitely new to me. I liked some of the ideas on how teachers can use Pinterest with their students.

            One of the ideas I liked for lower grade teachers was from Sarah Muthler’s article called “The Educator’s Guide to Pinterest” on how teachers could create a board that provides pins to students with informative text from the Internet without the fear of having them get into inappropriate websites. Muthler also shared how teachers can create book lists on Pinterest to help students find the right book for them. I like how the board will limit the websites that the students can view.

            Madeleine Cummings wrote about the popularity of Pinterest among teachers in her article “There’s a Big Hole in How Teachers Build Skills, and Pinterest is Helping to Fill It.” I know that from personal experience I wish that I would have had Pinterest way back when I first started teaching. New teachers now have the opportunity to look up good ideas to decorate their classrooms. A new teacher at my campus had adorable sitting crates and matching decorations in her classroom, and she quickly shared that she got all the decorating ideas from Pinterest. Cummings also mentioned that Pinterest helps teachers with lesson planning and getting ideas for projects and assignments which is important for a new teacher when he or she is lesson planning. Not only does Pinterest have decorative ideas but also good activities and lesson plans for teachers.

            As a reading coach, many times I have to share ideas for centers and lessons for different grade levels. Pinterest allows me to go in and look up activities for different grade levels plus now I know how I can create a board for each grade level and they can go in and look up all the activities that I have pinned for each grade level. The pins allow the teachers to narrow their search and not have to look through so many pins when they have so much to do. I think that allowing teachers to sell some of the activities that they have created on Pinterest is a great idea. Teachers are extremely underpaid for their hard work and should be compensated when they have a unique idea to share. Their products will benefit many students and teachers alike, and I think that they should receive some benefit themselves.
Link to my Pinterest board https://www.pinterest.com/srugarte/teaching/