Pinning Your Way to Pro-D

Professional Development is really everywhere and anywhere you want to look!  I realized this when a few friends introduced me to Pinterest.  This is a website where you have a number of themed virtual bulletin boards that you fill with items from different websites.  If you like something, you simply “pin” it to your appropriate bulletin board.  Pretty cool, huh?

People have  all sorts of different themes/topics for their personal virtual bulletin boards, including things like, Crafts, Foods that look Delicious, Home Decorating, Fashion, jewellery, etc…  There really is no bulletin board you can’t make and fill with items from around the internet!

As I was searching through other people’s personal bulletin boards (which you can do as soon as you enter the site), I noticed something very interesting and intriguing.  There were a number of people who posted things that were education-related: classroom bulletin boards, organizational ideas for the classroom, Word Wall pictures, and the list went on.  Hmmmmm… VERY cool!  This took Pinterest to a whole other level for me!

I started searching for education-related items/topics in the search option on the main page. I found many things that I “re-pinned” to my own virtual bulletin boards.  It was then that I saw that a number of these “pinned” items had website addresses listed below the picture. Great!  After I went to some of these websites, I realized what a wonderful Professional Development tool this is for educators!

Many of the links found below the “pinned” items took me to various blogs written by teachers.  These teachers were sharing their classrooms, their learning, their ideas, and even their resources they developed!  Teachers are so generous with their time and ideas!  Amazing!

Here is a sample of some of the great teacher blogs I found by searching through Pinterest. You can also find some fabulous blogs by looking at the blogrolls listed on the other blogs you visit!

•  Tales of a Teacherista This teacher has a number of items on her website – some for free and some for sale.  What caught my attention was the Spelling Tic-Tac Toe board she has on her front page:

Isn’t this just great?  I loved it because it gives students choice!  What student doesn’t like some choice in their learning?  If you scroll down on her page, you will see this spelling choice board and a few other printables to go with it, mainly recording sheets.  I’m sure she has other fabulous items on her blog as well, if you just hunt around a bit.

• Ms. Cooley has some great ideas at her blog: First Graders at Last.
• You will find a great way to share Word Wall chants with students at Growing Kinders. When I taught Grade 1, the students loved chants like this! What a great way to organize it! There are a lot of great ideas found on this blog.  While many of the resources do not really seem developmentally appropriate for little Kinders, the resources are great nonetheless.
• What the Teacher Wants has some great Science resources, wonderful ideas, and some writing resources.  There is likely a lot more, if you do some snooping!
• There’s even a Classroom Displays group on flickr where teachers upload and share photos of their classroom displays with one another!  What a great idea!
• This teacher reviews a whole lot of children’s books on her blog, Katie’s Learning Lounge. She even goes on to add ideas for extension activities.
• I thought this was the cutest little poster from Modern Parents Messy Kids. I may make one for my office, but modify it slightly.  This was written by a parent, but, really…. are these not things we want to teach our students every day…

And, what administrator or educator shouldn’t live by this thought….

This should be what guides our every action when dealing with ALL people – children, teachers, support staff, everyone…  Don’t you think so?

Go check out Pinterest, you just never know what you will find!

I could go on and on listing wonderful blog after wonderful blog of amazing teachers. My point is, there are amazing things online. There are amazing people to learn from, ask questions of, gather resources from.  Professional Development is EVERYWHERE!  Get out there and explore!  Pinterest may be one place to start.