Teachers + Pinterest = Genius!

Pinterest as Collaboration Tool for Teachers

It's one of the first lessons learned in Kindergarten: Share with others. Teachers are naturally good at sharing, unless, of course, it's the week before school starts and the local teacher supply store is running low on the hottest sale items. Then of course, it's fend for yourself! But most days, if a teacher has a good idea for her classroom, she's likely going to share it with her coworkers at her school. But give a teacher a Pinterest account and she will share those great teaching ideas with teacher friends, friends of teacher friends and other teachers around the world... all with the click of a button.

If you haven't yet joined Pinterest, here's how it works: Pinterest is a free virtual bulletin board that allows the user to "pin" a webpage or blog post while capturing the link that takes you back to the source from which it was "pinned."

Old School: when teachers found an idea or resource to use in their classroom they photocopied it and put it in a notebook or pinned the page with a thumbtack to a bulletin board for later reference. With Pinterest, teachers can save those great ideas they find on professional websites and blogs onto their Pinterest account by creating and organizing virtual bulletin boards and "pinning" the picture links to their boards. They can then go back and click on the pin (or picture) and it will take them to the website or blog where they found that great idea in the first place. They can also "Repin" pins that other have found and "follow" other pinners or other boards. Here is where the sharing comes in. Everything that you pin can be viewed by other pinners that follow you as well as other pinners that just happen to explore the topic you organized it under. (If you aren't in the sharing mood, you can also limit who sees your pins.)

I have pinned numerous recipes, home renovation tutorials and nifty craft ideas in the short time since I joined Pinterest. While browsing pins of those I "follow" I could not help but notice my teacher friends are pinning like crazy! Popular pins include everything from bulletin boards and favorite read alouds to research projects, math center ideas, Web 2.0 resources and Common Core Curriculum. As the first day of school inched closer, the number of teaching pins increased so much that I found myself secretly blaming the teachers who had become Pinaholics avid pinners over the summer break as the reason the Pinterest app on my phone was moving so slow. No kidding! It is working fine now that school has started.

Pinterest makes it easy for teachers to collaborate on themes by allowing multiple pinners to pin on the same board. True story: Erin, a second grade teacher was frustrated with the low writing scores in her class. She browsed pins on Pinterest about teaching writing. After finding many great ideas for Writer's Workshop online and from other Pinners, she created a board, "2nd grade Writer's Workshop" and shared the board with the other teachers on her grade level. After giving her coworkers access to pin to the board, her teammate Jan, then browsed the board adding in the comment box on one of the pins, "This will work great for teaching author's purpose too. What do you think?"  The other 2nd grade teachers also added to the board and commented on the pins already there. They can each access the board individually from school, home or on their cell phone via the Pinterest app. At their next collaborative planning meeting they were able to go back to several of the ideas they pinned to their shared board for a quick reference to the new resources.
 
If only we could get PD credit for all our "Professional Development" time spent on Pinterest! Oh, wait, I think I saw a quote about that on Pinterest the other day...

School Librarians as Common Core Partner

Teacher of year advocates for school librarians as Common Core Partner

With the implementation of Common Core curriculum, now more than ever, school librarians are a vital partner for the school learning community. Despite this growing need for the expertise of school librarians across our nation's schools, a growing trend in today's dismal economy is the elimination of school library media specialist positions due to budget constraints. Unfortunately, outdated stereotypes of school librarians as merely a 'keeper of books' has shaped the misconception that schools will get along just fine without them. To those who reason their school budget can't afford to keep a school librarian, consider this: How can you afford not to?

The ever changing digital age in which we live and teach requires our students to not only be proficient in using the latest technology but in being masters of transliteracy  in which students are expected to merge how they read and respond to what they get from traditional literacies with how they interact with new and emerging literacies such as digital media and Web 2.0. In an age where anyone can publish anything online with the click of a button, the 21st century learner must be able to use current technology and print resources to interpret information effectively, evaluate information sources critically and share information responsibility.  How can we expect teachers to teach these skills without access to their very best resource and Common Core partner, the school librarian? Better yet, how can we expect students who don't have access to this valuable resource to compete with students from other schools who do?

In light of this growing need for advocacy, I'd like to offer a big shout-out to Kentucky Teacher of the Year, Kimberly Shearer, who advocates for school librarians as Common Core Partner. She states in the July 2012 issue of Kentucky Teacher digital newsletter that, "school librarians have the resources, training and knowledge to help us make those meaningful connections between the Common Core Standards and our students’ interests and lives." Shearer goes on to list reasons why teachers and students need school librarians "now more than ever." Amen, sister!