Pinterest in the Classroom

I am familiar with the idea of Pinterest and have many friends who use it, but I have never considered using it to collect ideas for my future classroom. I have never created different boards either, but I enjoyed learning how to categorize different pins in this activity. I think I will definitely use my account as a teacher to collect ideas for lesson plans, student activities, and even just cute design ideas for my classroom decorations. One huge strength of Pinterest is the variety of materials available. Since users from all over the world can post, Pinterest is a great location to share ideas and collect resources. Another strength of Pinterest is the search bar - you can search any topic and find numerous pins, and the results are surprisingly accurate. I also like how it shows other similar posts once you choose to pin something. One challenge of using Pinterest is that the links do not always work. A pin will have an awesome looking picture of an activity, but the link does not lead anywhere. This is frustrating when I was really curious about the idea. Another challenge is that Pinterest sends a ton of email spam. I am going to update my settings to receive less of these, but no social media site should ever need to send that many emails, regardless of how much users like them! In general, I really enjoyed setting up Pinterest boards! I am glad to have the resources collected and plan to continue searching for my future classroom activities. I think Pinterest is a great asset for any serious educator!