Pinterest for Teachers

Unless you are living in some enclosed space without internet access or connection to tech savvy people like me, you've at least heard of Pinterest.  Maybe you've used it to find a recipe for a summer BBQ or gain inspiration for some DIY projects to spruce up your home.  Have you ever thought about using it to gain ideas for your classroom? 

What I've Found

I've seen everything from ideas to deliver content to organizational materials to some over-the-top student gift baskets that I would love to provide on the first day of school...if I didn't teach around 150 high school students. 

Here are some of my favorites that I've pinned over the last few days

Poetry Design 

My students could create their own designs, cut them out, and use them to create found poems from pages in our texts.  This adds a nice element of active learning to poetry and provides the opportunity to make poetry appeal to visual learners.

Pencil Dispenser

My students are always stopping me in the middle of class to ask for a pencil.  This might be a cute way to leave pencils out for students to take as needed.  I'm not 100% sure how well it will work, but it's worth a try. 

Theme Chart

This chart might a fun way to define each of our course themes for students so that they have a reference when I ask them to identify the themes of each novel we read and explain how the novel demonstrates the themes they chose. 

Objective Chart

My white board is always in need of a little bit of color.  I generally put the daily objective on my SMART Board, but it usually only stays for a few minutes before we need to use the board for other things.  These might be a fun way to integrate the to-do list on the board without using white board markers, which my students like to erase before class. 

Desk Organizer

This colorful organizer would be a cute way to organize all my desk materials while adding a little bit of color to my room.  White walls and neutral carpet always make things seem so sterile.  Just because I teach at a high school does not mean my students don't enjoy a bright, colorful atmosphere. Believe me, they notice!

 

This is probably my favorite thing that I found during my search.  I'm not usually a fan of little teacher sayings, but this canvas is simple, cute, and proves a point.  I love that it doesn't feature apples, pencils, letters, or any other stereotypical teacher clip-art.  I just might have to create one of these for my desk area, especially since we study the epic hero cycle and create our own super heroes during first semester. 




                                  Happy Pinning Everyone!