Pintrest

Melissa Holt

Assignment 6 

EDT 5372

Dr. Zhang

            After completing the readings, as well as using my own personal experience using Pinterest this week, this Web 2.0 tool can easily be implemented into classrooms in any content area and any grade level.  Three ideas of using Pinterest for teaching and learning are listed below:

Pinterest Idea #1

        One way that Pinterest could be used for teaching is by utilizing the website as a way to gain instructional ideas that correlate to specific content areas.  An educator could search through Pinterest in order to find and pin images or videos that will help facilitate lessons in various content areas.  Educators would have the added benefit of selecting pins on Pinterest that are aligned to state learning objectives and state performance standards.  This approach is the primary way that I currently utilize Pinterest in my 5^th grade Science classroom. One neat idea that I found on Pinterest was on ways that thinking maps can be used in Science.  The search results from Pinterest inspired me to create an interactive tree map for physical properties as my outdoor classroom display.

Pinterest Idea #2

        Another way that Pinterest could be used for teaching is by having educators use their pins to collaborate with other educators at the school, district, city, state, national, and global levels.  Using Pinterest as a way to network, build, and share ideas allows educators to grow and improve upon their teaching strategies, techniques, and overall pedagogy. Pinterest has features that assist in the ideology of sharing ideas.  One such feature is the ability to link pins found on Pinterest to a Facebook account.  This is a great way to use social media as a way of reaching many people.  This approach would work well with my 5^th Grade Science curriculum, because it would help contribute to my professional development through educator collaboration.

Pinterest Idea #3

       A final way that Evernote could be used for learning is by having students create their own Pinterest accounts.  In EPISD, all students in our district have e-mail accounts through Office 365.  Students will be able to use their district e-mail accounts to set up a Pinterest account.  Once students set up an account, they could all share their Pinterest url’s by using the Office 365 cloud.  Students would be able to build boards on different concepts that they are learning about in various content areas.  This would work well in my 5^th grade Science class.  Students would be given a topic such as states of matter, complete metamorphosis, or incomplete metamorphosis and would find pins that correlate to the unit of study that we are learning out.