Pinterest - A Social Networking Site

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My mind keeps getting blown by all these fantastic resources out there to build a PLN! I know I’m late to the party, but I am in love with Pinterest. Through the years, I have heard friends go on and on about Pinterest, how awesome it is, and that I should try it out. I never really saw the value in it; I really never had the need. Again, this class has opened my eyes! Not only have I quickly become addicted to Twitter, I now have to add Pinterest to that list! I could spend hours getting inspired by other educators with lesson ideas and resources. It is absolutely incredible how much is available to me at my fingertips! Why did I wait so long?!  Pinterest is definitely a social networking site I am going to recommend and encourage my fellow educators to belong to if they don’t already.

First off, there is a tremendous amount of value in learning and engaging with other professionals via social media websites. Solomon and Schrum (2010) state, “The point of communicating with others is to learn, develop, and expand all that we know; to share ideas and information; or just to enjoy social interaction” (p. 79). Social networking sites, like Pinterest, allow teachers to do just that. When I participate in sites like Twitter and Pinterest, I am building on my ability to understand and navigate through tools that my students use, and I am building my knowledge on content in such a way that I can more effectively teach and interact with my students. As mentioned in my previous blogs, there is currently a movement in education that is requiring teachers to prepare students to become productive members of the digital future. Building my PLN in this manner is better equipping me to do just that. I could not imagine trying to embark on this change without the support and resources my fellow educators can offer me.

“Pinterest is rapidly becoming a favorite tool of educators all over the nation, and many have amassed some pretty great collections of edtech-related pins that teachers and students alike can use to explore new ways to learn, share, teach, and grow” (TeachThought, 2012, para. 1). During my exploration of Pinterest, I quickly became a fan. I found it extremely easy to maneuver through and really appreciated how it organized everything. By downloading the extension button to my toolbar, I can virtually pin pages to my boards with the click of a button. LOVE that feature! I’m all about time-saving features, since it's so valuable. Another component I really like is the ability to easily search and follow people that developed boards that I am interested in. I love the idea of people bringing information to me in a nice, neat, little package! Again, another big time-saver! Additionally, I like how I can invite people to follow/collaborate on boards. It’s a great format to collect and share resources with other educators. Not to mention, I absolutely love how nicely I can tie Pinterest and Twitter together. I can use Pinterest to find information and share it on Twitter, thus growing my PLN by sharing with others rather than just keeping it to myself. I also really like how Pinterest bookmarks sites with a picture. That way you can see the activity. If it’s something you’re interested in, you just have to click on it again. It’s that simple! I’m a very visual person and appreciate being able to see a little preview. Another great feature of Pinterest is how it links you to a myriad of resources that come from other websites, such as Teachers Pay Teachers. I like how it brings the resources to me instead of me going out to search and finding them individually. It compiles everything in an easy to navigate and visually appealing manner.

Being a 6th grade ELA teacher, I am always looking for lessons/ideas that will inspire my students to learn. I found Pinterest particularly helpful in aiding my ability to find activities to engage and better teach my gifted students. So many times, I find myself focusing on the students who struggle. Unfortunately, my gifted students get overlooked. This was largely due to the fact that I just didn’t know what to do with them. I know they need to be challenged, but I had no idea how to even begin to tackle that problem. Well, now I do, PINTEREST! All I did was enter a search “gifted student activities for reading and writing” and BOOM! I had a plethora of suggestions on my screen. The following are some of the websites I found during this search. I am so excited about these websites that I have to share these wonderful resources with my fellow educators. Please, check them out!

• 3 Proven Ways to Differentiate Instruction for the Gifted Learner in a Data-Driven Society
• Teaching Students to Close Read… When you can’t mark the text!
• Gifted and Talented Activity - Postcard Creative Writing Project
• Step In, Step Out: A Strategy for Thinking Deeply About Text
• Rigorous Question Stems for Reading and Writing

In addition to locating those wonderful websites, I also started following a board specifically geared towards teaching gifted students. In it, there are countless ideas and strategies to enhance the education of these students. Specifically, I love the “Dos and Don’ts of Teaching Gifted Students” link that was pinned to this board. It contains great information about teaching gifted students and what to say to them. So often there are a variety of resources available and techniques taught to teach the struggling student, but nothing about what to do with the gifted. Resources like this will change that.

Just earlier today, I was not properly equipped with strategies, techniques, or lessons, and Pinterest has changed that. While I realize this is not the be all, end all to teaching gifted students, it has given me a place to start. I now have ideas that I can begin with this year. One goal this year is to use tools like Twitter and Pinterest to meet the needs of all my students. I don’t want to overlook the gifted anymore. They deserve a quality education, just like all the other students sitting in my room. I now feel confident that I can build on this knowledge and better teach my students using this social networking site.

Pinterest is also easy to use with your students to enhance their learning. You can share a link to your board via your LMS (learning management system) that will allow your students access to resources you find valuable. You can also create a widget and embed it into a tool like Weebly. Students will then have access to the board you created. While my students are too young to have their own Pinterest account, older students (13+) could use it as a way to collect information and demonstrate their understanding of a topic. They could also use it as a means to collect resources and collaborate with other classmates. I envision this working nicely with a group project in which students must work together to achieve a similar goal.

In all my excitement in finding such great resources in ELA, I have already tweeted about some of them. I find myself eager to share the great ideas I find from other educators. What a powerful tool to grow a person’s PLN. It seems silly to me now that I used to be afraid to share. I still get nervous sometimes, but I have gained so much from doing it, that I just can’t see myself quitting. I encourage all educators to not just be “lurkers,” but to put yourself out there and share. You will be surprised how welcoming the virtual world can be and how quickly your database of knowledge and resources will grow. I am astounded at how much I have changed professionally over the past few weeks since joining and participating in social networking sites to grow my PLN. They have forever changed my classroom and the way I teach.

References:

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2010). Web 2.0 How-To for Educators. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

T. (2012, September 22). 25 Of The Best Pinterest Boards In Education. Retrieved July 24, 2016, from http://www.teachthought.com/uncategorized/25-of-the-best-pinterest-boards-in-education/