So it's finally hitting me; in a little over a month I will be responsible for my very own class of eager first graders. Eek! As excited as I am, it's also a little bit daunting to think about all of the things I need to do to prepare for this pivotal first year. Of course, I turned to the wonderful world wide web to find super crafty and original ideas for lesson plans, classroom decor, organization options, and management solutions. Now, I am not the most craft savvy person on the planet but I try and as long as there is a straight forward tutorial with plenty of pictures, I'll do my best to get that project as perfect as possible, even if it doesn't always turn out exactly the way I want! So, back to the point, as you can imagine after almost an entire summer of saving activities and ideas all over the blog world of the internet, my list of bookmarked pages was ridiculously long. How would I ever find what I was looking for when I needed it without spending oodles of time going though this gigantic list? In comes the most amazing internet idea ever invented (as well as the best way to waste your life away procrastinating): Pinterest.
I had been seeing this site pop up all over Facebook recently and decided to see just what all of the fuss is about. When I visited the page, I was a bit confused because by just glancing, it just seems like a ton of jumbled pictures one after the other, but once I found out exactly how it worked I was hooked! On Pinterest, you can make a virtual pinboard of sorts (picture an old-fashioned cork board by your desk that you would pin ideas and pictures of things you like in magazines, etc. to to look for inspiration) and categorize each board with a label/description of the things you have pinned to that board. For example, I have a board called First Grade Math Activities, so when I see an activity I like searching through a blog, I simply click the Pin It button on my tabs (you simply follow the instructions for installing when you register for Pinterest; seriously takes about 5 minutes) and choose what board I want it to go on and Voila! that idea with the address of the site it is from is automatically saved in that category! Later, when I am looking for a great activity to do with the kids, I just head over to Pinterest, log in, and click on the Math Activities board and there it is! Sure beats scrolling through hundreds of bookmarks at time!
Here's where the fun (and procrastinating) part comes in; you can search other people's boards on Pinterest as well. So if you are looking for science activity ideas, simply put science activities in the search bar and all of the pins with that label from other users will pop up. For a non-teaching related example, I've been searching for bridal shower and bachelorette party ideas for my BFF Ashleigh's wedding in the Spring and have found several lovely ideas from invitations to centerpieces through Pinterest. If you find a board with particularly superb ideas, you can even follow that person and get regular updates on what he/she has added each time you log on. Let me tell you though, this site can get addictive! I have been on Pinterest several nights where I have looked at the clock to see that I have been pinning things for hours on end! For the borderline OCD personality like me, it can get a bit dangerous!
So what are you waiting for?! Get to Pinterest right now and get to pinning!
www.pinterest.com
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