I love Pinterest-I mean I LOVE IT!!!
Okay, it started off innocently enough-my friend sent me an invite (which I still think is a bit ridiculous) last fall. She warned me-"Kara," she said, "you will hate me for sending this to you!" was how it went. From the minute I logged in, I was HOOKED!!!!! Obviously up until this summer, I used it primarily as a virtual bulletin board for ideas, recipes, tips, etc. I honestly had no idea that there was educational value to all of the visual awesomeness!! To find out that my visual crack had meaning made it even better!!!!!!!
In the summer months I began to notice that my "teacher" friends were branching out. They were creating pin boards with titles like "My school day" or "Potential Lessons". It was like a light went off-I COULD USE THIS FOR SCHOOL!!! Now sure I know I wasn't working full time, but I was confident that I would be going back at some point!!!!! Let the professional pins begin!! I created "School is Cool" and then upon being hired in the library ventured out to create a new board "Life in the library".
Here is a link to my boards:
http://pinterest.com/karakst/
Please don't judge me-I don't sleep a lot!! I know there are a lot of pins on there!!! I just can't help it.
This tool is so user friendly!!! The only aspect of Pinterest that I don't particularly like is the invitation to become a "member". It seems silly to me-I don't really have any substantial reasoning behind that feeling. That being said, I guess I also don't like that you have to have a Twitter or Facebook account to even get the invite from a friend. This excludes tween and teens who could use this site for fun. My 13 year old daughter would love her own account, but because she does not have either social network she is unable to have her own account. I will continue to explore (yes, on a daily basis!) the categories that other pinners are creating-what excites me is that I can go EVERY day (okay, sometimes multiple times a day) and find fresh new ideas. I also like that while this is a social network there is very little actual communication between people. To me the social aspect is seeing what other ideas are out there on topics of my choosing. This has totally replaced my desire to go to Facebook. I would much rather look at pins and get cool ideas (I actually do create things that I pin) than read status after status on Facebook. I also need to explore the technical aspect of pinning an original pin from the Internet on my iPad. Currently I only have the "pin" button on my old Dell laptop so I can use that device when I am searching for ideas/lessons/tips on the Internet. Within the Pinterest program I am fine, it is when I leave the site and go exploring that I have trouble.
I am using this tool with students right now. I recently created a board called "Young Adult Lit" where I have started to record and note what YA books I am reading, have read, or have gotten a review on. I also have gotten book suggestions, bulletin board ideas, library lessons, book displays and many other things that I have either used or plan on using in the upcoming months with the kids. I think this would be a fun tool for students to use as well. My kids love to pin ideas-while I will not let them have their own (you have to have a Facebook or Twitter account to be eligible for the illustrious invite) account, I do let them get on and pin things to their own special boards. I think kids could keep track of what they are reading, what they have read, what they like, etc. with Pinterest. I know that several teachers in my building use Pinterest during brain breaks and other various times by pulling up their accounts and utilizing pins that they have found.
It is easy to get lost in the Pinterest world! I will admit that it is my favorite time suck! I can sit down and pin the hours away-I'm not spending any money and I am finding cool ideas to use professionally (and it doesn't hurt to find cute craft ideas either!) and here at home. As I said before, I love it!!!!!
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