By Kelsey Miller

Brief Description

Pinterest is a social curation website for sharing and categorizing images found online.
Pinterest is a portmanteau of the words “pin” and “interest.”

Pinterest categories include architecture, art, DIY and crafts, fashion, food and drink, home décor, science and travel, among an almost endless list of other possibilities. Users can add a “Pin it” button to their browser and then select and “pin” online images to virtual pinboards, which are used to organize categories. Pinterest requires brief descriptions but the main focus of the site is visual. Clicking on an image will take you to the original source, so, for example, if you click on a picture of a pair of shoes, you might be taken to a site where you can purchase them. An image of blueberry pancakes might take you to the recipe; a picture of a whimsical birdhouse might take you to the instructions. Users can browse or search for image content and can follow the boards of other users and can “like” or repin other users’ pins.

Step by step guide: how to use Pinterest

Step 1

Start by going to the website and creating a free account. Once an account has been made, Pinterest will ask you to choose your different personal interest.

Step 2

Next, you will notice the homepage. This is where you can search for new ideas and the information you gave Pinterest concerning your personal interest will be reflected by what type of Pins will be on your homepage.

Step 3

If you click on your name, it will bring you to a page of all your boards that you can create. Once you save a Pin to a specific board, this is where you would go to find it once saved.

Step By Step guide: how to pin

Step 1

Search any desired topic/idea in the bar at the top of the page

Step 2

Once you find one you would like to pin, hover your mouse over the picture until it gives you the drop down option of various boards to pin it to.

Step 3

Finally, select the desired board for the Pin and click save. That's it!

Helpful Videos

Pinterest and Education

Brain storming/inspiration

The main benefit of utilizing Pinterest in the classroom is due to its access of Pandora's Box/plethora of information. Students can easily search for ideas in their topic area and gain inspiration from the resources and colorful images they find. This works especially well for visual projects. Students can pin the kind of work they’d like to emulate in shape, content or form, as well as create a portfolio of the artists and designers that inspire them.

Not only do students enjoy the surplus of fun ideas, but the teacher may also gain inspiration for future lessons and discover a new and fun way to teach something. This adds a whole new dimension of creativity to teaching and learning alike.

Sample Classroom activities

research project

Pinterest is a treasure trove for research projects. For example: If students are researching the history of the suffragist movement, each student could create a Suffragist Board where they can pin research, YouTube videos, and pictures from both Pinterest and around the Internet. When they’re ready to take their project to the writing or presentation stage, they’ll have everything they need in one organized, visually intuitive place.

W.11-12.7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation

Collaborative stories

There’s a classic writing exercise where one student writes a line of a story on a piece of paper, folds the piece of paper over so no one else can see it, passes it to the next student to write a line, and so on until the class has written an entire story together, line by line.

You can do the same thing with students on Pinterest by having them add new pins to a storyboard, one by one. The story could be made entirely of images, with students pinning photos that represent their meaning. Or students could use a picture editor to write lines on a graphic, and pin from there.

W.11-12.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Tech Tip Pages-Pinterest.mp4

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