Pinterest- A Teacher's Addiction

By Amelia Cook

In the world of teaching we often turn to a plethora of sources when creating lesson plans and getting new ideas for our classrooms such as books, friends, magazines, coworkers and the Internet. With the Internet comes come an even wider source of ideas, gadgets and crafts for us to spend countless hours creating and spending money on. This brings a new addiction for many others and not just my teacher friends but most everyone I know as well-Pinterest.

It needs no explanation for those of us that have been using it for an extended amount of time and for that I mean, pinning until two in the morning. I was talking with a few fellow teacher friends the other day about Pinterest and some new things we had just pinned for our classroom. One of my friends said, " Pinterest has helped me become a better teacher." I couldn't agree more--Pinterest is a tool that every teacher must be familiar with.  I will take you through a couple of reasons why I believe this to be true.

1. Pinterest give teachers new strategies to use in the classroom. As a teacher you usually use the strategies that the  supervising teacher used during your student teaching or whatever your co-workers use. Through Pinterest I have found so many new strategies to use in my classroom that cover every area you could imagine. I have discovered great behavior management strategies such as whole-brain teaching and Rick Morrison's clip chart. For reading, I've discovered the Daily 5 and CAFE. The great thing about this is, through these pins I have found linked sites with videos, lesson plans and free downloads for the classroom, for myself and all of my students--free of charge.

2. Pinterest has exposed me to some awesome blogs by teachers. Wow! I knew people blogged but I never knew so many great teachers blogged and created stuff to sell and to give away for FREE! Through my pins t I have designated a "Blogs I Follow" board. After going through these blogs I now follow over twenty teachers blogs across the United States and even in Australia!

These great teachers post great things and even not so great things that happen in their classroom, post things they have for sale that they have made and even give things away they made for FREE! This is done through two awesome sites I've discovered via Pinterest called Teachers Pay Teachers, and the Teachers Notebook.   Another great thing about following blogs that I recently discovered is that they hold raffles! Oh my word more FREE stuff! So far this year I have won two class sets of brag tags from imagestuff.com and a Learning Resources easi-speak USB downloadable microphone! I know what you're thinking...I'm going to start following blogs, and I don't blame you.

3. Pinterest has the best tutorials for classroom crafts. As a teacher, cutesy and crafty is in our blood. Well, at least I know it's in mine. Through Pinterest I've pinned many cute and crafty things to make for my classroom. Some of the great things I've found to make are crates for my classroom, bulletin boards, organization labels for a storage container and comprehension strategy posters.

The crates are going to be great for my small group table. They are going to hold my center's materials, and will be covered in a cute matching fabric for my room and I know the kids will love sitting on them during guided reading time. I've found great pins for bulletin boards for back to schools, holidays and content. I can't wait to make my bubble gum jar to wel-gum students back this year! Not only will my room be so much more organized, but also the items I make can be reused every year and it will be oh so cute!

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