Bookish Ways in Math and Science: Pinterest

Showing posts with label Pinterest. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

My Pinterest and 20,000 Follower Giveaway!

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 2 - Math Boards

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!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, November 18, 2013

Closing in on 20,000 Followers!

Here's a look at my Pinterest page today.

Right now at 9:51 pm on Monday, November 18th, I am 102 followers away from 20,000! This is really unbelievable.

In February, after just 13 months of pinning, I had 135 boards and 10,000 followers. Today, just under 9 months later, I have 230 boards and am close to another milestone.

I think this one deserves a bit of celebration and some free stuff. Since my boards focus solely on teaching, I'll be giving away some books on math, science, social studies, and general instructional practices. I may throw in a few other goodies as well.

I'm heading home from class now, but I'll be back tomorrow with all the details. Stay tuned!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Closing in on 10,000 and a Giveaway!

For some reason unknown to me, my son has been fascinated these last few months with watching my Pinterest numbers. I'll admit that I'm not usually a numbers watcher, but this too has me a bit surprised. Here's this morning's screenshot of my Pinterest site.

If you can't read that teeny tiny type, here's what you'll find.

135 Boards
5,057 Pins
9,880 Followers

Before winter break William asked if I'd ever make it to 5,000 followers and I basically laughed. Why would 5,000 people want to follow me? I'm not laughing anymore.

If you haven't been to my Pinterest site, you'll find these aren't your "typical" boards. There are no recipes, clothes, or any personal items. The boards are all about teaching. About 75% are related to math, the rest mainly to science, with a bit of social studies thrown in. Since I'll be picking the social studies piece of my class back up this summer, I'm sure I'll be expanding this area in the future.

This is all a very long way of saying that 10,000 is a milestone that should be celebrated. Knowing that I'll reach this number sometime before the end of the month, I've decided to giveaway a few of my favorite science poetry books to one lucky winner. Here are the titles.

a Rafflecopter giveaway Good luck!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

A Pinterest Update and a Thank You

I blame Loreen Leedy for this! On December 21st last year she wrote a post entitled Pinterest for nonfiction (and everything else)!-- a post that convinced me to ask her for an invitation. I started my account on January 8th and began with a bit of trepidation. What exactly was I going to use this for? I played around a bit and realized very quickly just how very useful these boards could be in my teaching. Here's a glimpse of my page.

Nearly 11 months later I have 113 Boards, just over 3900 pins, and a growing collection of resources for teaching math and science, and to a smaller extent, social studies.

For years I've developed web sites for my classes. In this particular iteration I'm using both Weebly and Google sites. I like them both for different reasons, but I must say the visual nature of Pinterest is highly compelling. Students SEE very quickly what I'm talking about. Both the Weebly and Google sites are text heavy. With Pinterest I can point them directly to resources they can use in planning lessons. It has significantly changed how I think about sharing some of the more practical, applied components of the pedagogy I teach.

So, while I blame Loreen for this new obsession, I also owe her a great deal of thanks for helping me add yet another tool to my arsenal of teaching ideas. Thanks, Loreen!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Pinterest Page

Have you been to my Pinterest site lately? Here's a glimpse. There are 67 boards and more than 2200 pins!

The bulk of these are related to math. Thanks to all the great teachers sharing their amazing materials.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Pinterest for Teachers - Points to Consider

What is Pinterest? Pinterest is a site where you can “pin” images you find on the internet. Think of it as one giant, virtual corkboard. The images you pin link directly to site where the image is located (or should), so you can learn more about it.

I wandered around the fringes of Pinterest for a few months during the fall semester, but didn't request an invitation. Finally, a post by Loreen Leedy entitled Pinterest for nonfiction (and everything else)!, convinced me to take the plunge. I set up a site, played around a bit, and suddenly realized how very useful these boards could be in my teaching. Here is a screenshot of a few of my boards.

My Pinterest boards for math are in many ways more powerful than my web site for math, precisely because they are visual. Now instead of merely linking to a site with ideas for teaching about fractions, I can link to specific posts that SHOW these ideas in action.

Searching for and finding images for my boards has brought home two very important points. First, there are many very creative and talented teachers out their working very hard to give their students exactly what they need and then some. Second, despite all the negative things I see and hear about teachers and the state of public education, there are really good things happening on the ground and in the trenches where it matters most.

Suffice it to say that I've been enjoying my time finding resources for instruction and pinning them to my boards. So, I was a bit surprised and more than a little concerned when I started to read articles about Pinterest and copyright concerns. Here are a few.

This reading and a bit more searching led me to Laura Candler's post entitled Do You Have Permission to Pin?. In this post she outlines the copyright concerns and encourages bloggers and others to join a "Permission to Pin" movement. Basically, displaying the "Permission to Pin" image on your site will serve as notice to visitors that you grant permission to pin your work.

Since I'm about to embark on a new series called Monday Math Freebies (check back tomorrow!) which will include images of resources I am creating, I want folks to know without a doubt that they can pin my work. If you are making images of your work available for others, I hope you'll think about joining.

And if you're interested in checking out my boards for math and science, visit my Pinterest site!