The One With All The Pins
Pinterest, according to their website, is a visual discovery engine for finding ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more. This social networking site allows people to discover information from the internet and save into onto pinboards they've created. Pinterest is essentially a visual search engine. You can search almost anything on the internet and "pin" it to your Pinterest board. You can also search what others have pinned and save to your own board. Boards are created by the user as a way to separate their pins by interest to them. For example, you can have a Recipe Board where you will save recipes you find online or on Pinterest that other users have found or you can have a Travel Board to save images of destinations you want to visit, itineraries you create or find online, etc.
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the ten most popular niches on Pinterest are:
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the ten most popular niches on Pinterest are:
- Home Décor
- Art
- Travel
- Photography
- DIY and Crafts
- Design
- Technology
- Quotes
- Food and Drink
- Humor
The one thing missing from this list that is growing in popularity is Education. Teachers are discovering Pinterest is a great way to spark their classroom creativity. From fun classroom themes, board displays, too in class activities, Pinterest has a whole world of education materials for teachers at any grade level. I personally use Pinterest to help find fun ice breakers for the first week of school, ideas to decorate my boards, as well as lessons and activities. Once I find items of interest, the pin will take me to outside websites where I can read more about the topic or even purchase and download materials. Teachers can easily create Boards for each lesson or unit they teach and save items they find so everything is stored in one place for easy access later on. Everyone hates reading an article or finding a picture of something they want to replicate for their classroom and forgetting where they found it. Pinterest puts an end to that!
Another way teachers can use Pinterest is through creating Boards to share with students. This may be better for upper level students, high school and beyond as students would need their own accounts to contribute to the boards. Teachers can create and share the board with students who can then pin items to it. This can help students contribute to their learning and be inspired. Teachers can create a board for a book the class is reading or a topic they're studying and students have to find images, videos or other sources of information that relate to the book or topic.
While most people may use Pinterest for personal use only, there really is a great deal that it can do to help you professionally. As a teacher, I know I love using Pinterest, but many other professionals can utilize Pinterest as well. As the company continues to grow, they are expanding the capabilities and making it a versatile platform that has so many uses for almost anyone!
Lauren! I really enjoyed reading this post. I have to agree, I use Pinterest for personal use, such as home décor or fashion. I enjoy getting ideas within each of these categories. I liked that you shared how teachers could use Pinterest to get ideas for their classrooms. I found this very interesting. I feel you associate many of these platforms with personal sharing, however, there are ways to use them professionally. Thank you for this post, I am going to explore Pinterest for ideas that encompass the professional realm such as teaching! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI definitely used Pinterest a lot when I was a teacher. I pinned bulletin board ideas, lessons, activities, worksheets, and more. I loved how easy it was to store information and come back to it later. I never used Pinterest actively with my students, so I enjoyed the examples you gave and wish I had the opportunity to give them a try. I think there are plenty of ways Pinterest can be used professionally. My husband even uses it to pin design ideas for projects he's working on.
ReplyDeleteWow, your post and the comments got me thinking about Pinterest from a different perspective. I read an article about using Pinterest in a graduate course, where students found course related concepts from their daily lives and took photos of them to share them on the course's board. It seems like Pinterest could be used as a great collaboration tool!
ReplyDeleteI have started using it to organize and minimize my digital clutter!
ReplyDeleteI have been pinning teaching stuff for years. I have at least 4 boards for work. I have one for each prep, one for teaching summer school and one that I have just for my students. The one that I have created and shared with students is a bunch of tips and tricks I have found for study prep, test taking, etc. If you have read my blog, you may know that I have been known to have a Pinterest problem in the past....a bit too many pins....
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