As I watch the numbers move up towards 20,000 followers, I thought this might be a good time to explain a bit about my Pinterest site and how it's organized.
I started pinning in January of 2012 thinking it might be a good way to organize teaching resources, never realizing just how much it would grow. As someone who had her first web site in 1995 (yes, you read that correctly), the evolution of technology and web applications has been pretty impressive to watch. I can tell you that I don't miss writing everything in HTML, though that knowledge does still come in handy when blogging.
Just a few short months after I began pinning, I realized it was going to be a far more useful tool than the Weebly and Google sites I had created for my classes. The visual nature of Pinterest makes it so much more appealing than reading some words and clicking on a hyperlink. Right away folks can see something of interest and check it out. You will find that I do try hard to write a brief summary description to describe each pin.
My Pinterest is organized in sections, with general teaching resources first, then math, science, and social studies. There are currently 230 boards, but I'm sure that will change. As boards grow too large, I split them into smaller sections. For example, in math I had a single board for addition and subtraction. It grew to more than 400 pins, which made it hard to find useful resources. Now you'll find a board for fact families, basic facts, multi-digit addition and subtraction, doubles and doubles +1 facts, ways to make 5 and 10, word problems, and more. These smaller, more focused boards make it easier to find just what you want.
I try to maintain the boards to delete duplicates or pins with dead links, and to remove items that must be purchased. For a number of reasons I've made a conscious choice to only feature free resources on these boards. In large part this decision was made because I work with preservice teachers and those new to the profession. If you remember your early years of teaching, you'll will remember walking into a classroom with almost no materials of your own. I want new teachers to head into their classrooms with a wealth of resources without breaking the bank. I also know that by introducing them to the many great teachers out there creating amazing materials and sharing ideas that these new teachers will eventually check out and consider everything that's available, including items for sale.
Now that you know a bit about how I've organized and why, here's what you'll find. (Links to each board coming soon!)
Section 1 - General Teaching Boards
General Ideas/Resources | Class Procedures/Management | Classroom Economy/Student Jobs | Class Tools/Organization | Creative Tools/DIY | Fonts | Technology/21st Century Skills | Differentiation | Activate Prior Knowledge | Check For Understanding | Exit Slips | Discussion/Accountable Talk | Group/Partner Work | Depth and Complexity | Informational Text | Vocabulary (General) | Foldables/Graphic Organizers | Infographics/Visual Literacy | Anchor Charts (General)
Section 2 - Math Boards
Common Core Math | Mathematical Practice Standards | Be a Mathematician | Math Talk | Math Learning/Reflection | Math Teaching/Instruction | Math Workshop/Guided Math | Organizing Math | DIY Manipulatives | Math and Literature | Math Notebooks | Math Journal Prompts | Math Mini-Offices | Math Reference/Help Pages | Math Vocab/Word Wall | Visual Math | Math Differentiation | Math Assessment | Word Problems/Problem Solving | Number of the Day/Week | Math Stretches/Daily Work/RAP | Assorted Math Resources | Card/Dice/Domino Math | Calendar Math | Calendar Numbers/Labels | Number/Counting Cards | Number Order/Sequencing | Writing/Representing Numbers | Subitizing | Counting | Tally Marks | Skip Counting | Ordinal Numbers | Number Lines | Ten Frames | Numicon | Rekenrek | 100 Boards/120 Charts
PHEW! As you can see, math is by far the biggest section at over 6000 pins!
Section 3 - Science
Section 4 - Social Studies
I just added the social studies section this summer, so you can see that there are many topics left to be added here!
If you've stuck with me all this way, congratulations! Now we get to the good part. In honor of reaching 20,000 followers (any day now!), I'm giving away 4 books representing each section of my Pinterest to ONE lucky winner. Here are the books.
That's it! You have just under one week to enter. Good luck!
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