Pinterest in the Classroom

As an already avid Pinterester, I've only recently understood the capacity to which I can utilize it for not just personal interests, but professional ones as well. I happened upon two amazing high school English Language Arts teachers who YouTube, blog, and use Pinterest themselves, then opening up a plethora of new ideas, and thinking about teaching in general, in a new, more interactive way.

Thinking about the My Classroom board, it finally got my gears going about what I wanted, and think the students will need from a work/thinking space. A realization came to me that, especially in Literature studies and growing as a write requires a flexible, cooperative, engaging classroom is going to enhance and engage students to their maximum potential. I realize that there will be constraints to what is allowed and accepted in certain schools, as well as staying withing something budget-friendly, but leaving that behind and just dreaming of what my ideal classroom would be was fun and exciting, and made me brainstorm on ways I can make that possible, even if I have to DIY some things myself, or get the class involved in creating and learning for the sake of their learning space.

Not only does Pinterest have amazing pins to be found in classroom decor, but they have some pretty amazing student activities too. I found an enormous amount of teacher created, tested, and approved activities, worksheets, games, and topic ideas, including fantastic ways to interact more, and give the students a more hands-on approach to their subject matter. Also, Pinterest is where I first began seeing content from TeachersPayTeachers, a place with amazing lessons and activities made by teachers! It's a wonderful resource that can help you, and help other teachers too, as some of the content is sold, but a great deal of it is free.

I plan to continue using Pinterest to help inspire my future classroom, and find it an extremely valuable resource if you just dig a round a little. There may be a few bumps along the way, one being that sometimes the images for pins don't always want to reveal themselves, but aside from that minor, occasional hiccup, Pinterest is a great tool, and an engaging platform.