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13 Ways to Use Pinterest in the Classroom

Pinterest provides users with ideas for projects, ideas, and other interests. From weddings to do-it-yourself projects, Pinterest is becoming a go-to resource for people all over the country, including teachers. 

EducationWorld has gathered a list of ways teachers can use Pinterest in their classroom curated from sources such as TeachThought, TechBytes, and Vartek. Visit EducationWorld's Pinterest page and share your pins with teachers around the world.

TeachThought offers 37 ways teachers can use in the classroom for all things inspiration, lesson plans, professional and fun. Here are five tips:

  1. Get Inspiration for Decorating Your Classroom: "Looking to liven up your classroom? There are tons of photos of great classroom setups, from kindergartens to high school that you can use for inspiration." 
  2. Get Fun Ideas for New Projects: "Whether you're looking for holiday fun for students or something to relate your lessons, you'll find some really amazing ideas when you look through educational pins on the site."
  3. Use Pinning As Part of a Lesson: "Of course, pinning itself could also be an educational experience. Students could have to pin items that fit a certain set of criteria as part of a lesson."
  4. Find Amazing Teaching Blog to Read: "If you're looking for more reading material, you'll find it on Pinterest. There are loads of teacher blogs and educational posts pinned that you can look through."
  5. Laugh After a Long Day: "One of the best ways you can use Pinterest for fun is to create a board dedicated to things that make you smile. Pin cute pictures, comic strips, and funny images for an instant pick-me-up."
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TechBytes shares "10 Ways to Use Pinterest in the Classroom:" 

  1. Research Boards: "Have students create boards for different classroom research topics/assignments where they can pin relevant articles, images and videos."
  2. Group Collaboration: "Have students create a board that multiple users can post on and use it for group collaboration or team projects."
  3. Class Board: "Create one board for the class where students can post interesting articles, images, and videos they find at home relating to classwork."
  4. Project Signup Boards: "​Have students visually signup for projects by posting a pin of an image with their name as the caption; for example, if you are assigning students to study individual countries, students would post a picture of their country with their name as a caption."
  5. Online Bibliography: "Have younger students create pins of all of their online references and add as a link to websites, presentations, or blogs in lieu of a formal works cited."
     

Vartek offers "5 Unique and Quick Ways to Use Pinterest in the Classroom. Here are three examples:

  1. Brainstorm: "Get those students brainstorming with images. Especially helpful when introducing the idea of brainstorming. This will help students identify the big ideas with no words necessary."
  2. Parent Communication: "By sharing or posting your Pinterest boards or your students’ boards, parents will get a real look into what is going on with their children in the classroom. Let’s face it the “overtly dedicated” parent would be mighty pleased."
  3. Presentation Skills: "The dreaded Power Point can be forever spurned. No longer can students regurgitate the copious amounts of words that fill the slide from top to bottom. If they just rely on the images they placed on the board it will -shall I use the words - challenge them!"

Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor