PLN: Pinterest

Hi everyone!

 I would be considered a Stage 1: Lurker when it comes to Pinterest. I have had an account for a while (two accounts actually as I just discovered...I forgot I made one years ago in college). When planning my wedding, I definitely used this social media site to get centerpiece and dress ideas. I enjoyed looking at all the pictures. I also came upon this site when doing Google searches for my classroom, and I found some neat ideas over the years. Nevertheless, I never spent much time really using the site---I never really organized pins, pinned things in general, or followed anyone.  I spent more time on it today and came across some neat classroom management ideas.

Personal Image

 I made a whole new board and called it classroom management ideas. I was inspired to create this board by coming across this pin above about blurt beans. The title Chatty class? definitely caught my attention! I have such a chatty class this year and after coming home today on a Friday, I am willing to try anything to help limit the talking in my classroom. Upon clicking on this pin, I went to a website called Miss Giraffe's class. This page contains a slew of strategies to curb or stop talking among the students. Some of these ideas such as "blurt cubes" and "the marshmallow trick" are clever ones to manage talking in the classroom. After spending time on this site, I started pinning other classroom management and organization ideas on this board. I have a nice collection so far!

I love making lists. I have Post-It notes all over my desk. Pinterest is essentially just that but on the computer. The site is actually really up my alley so I am not really sure why I have shied away from using it. Something about it overwhelmed me and that caused me to not fully pay attention to it. By spending more time pinning and gaining followers, I can venture into the higher stages of connectedness when using a PLN (Professional Learning Network) like Pinterest. 

I most identify with the cognitive benefits of using a PLN. I like gaining creative ideas from other educators to help meet needs or solve problems in my classroom. While I use TpT a lot to gather resources for the classroom, I have recently found Twitter to be very helpful in order to learn new ideas from teachers. I shared my classroom management board on Twitter to see if anyone may be inspired and/or share more tips with me. After exploring Pinterest more, I need to use this social media site to help myself stay connected with other teachers so that I am not sitting in isolation with my classroom problems.

Let's hope these blurt beans work so I can stop all the chatterboxes in my room....