Pin It!
One resource I have found to be particularly helpful is the website “Pinterest”. The possibilities this website has to offer are virtually endless; ranging from recipes to technology. In addition, there are so many great educational resources for teachers to use for every subject.
Go to www. pinterest. com
*All Screenshots taken on my own computer from pinterest website*
Upon your first visit to the website you will have to create an account in order to save all of your “pins”. This allows you to create different boards for different topics to save these “pins” to. You can search for virtually anything by using the search bar in the upper left hand corner. By clicking on the box to the very left of it, you can search different categories without typing in anything on your own. As you can see, there are numerous categories available, Education being one of them. By clicking on any of these links, you will arrive on a new page displaying anything and everything related to that category.
Search It!
Let’s say I am teaching my class a lesson on animal habitats and am looking for extensions to add to the lesson. These may be games, arts and crafts, or even trade books. I could type “animal habitats” into the search bar and get immediate results. Of course, I can narrow my search by entering keywords that specify exactly what I’m looking for. 
Upon simply searching “animal habitats”, I come across hundreds of different projects to use in the classroom, such as “Habitat Sorting”. By clicking on any of these images, I will be able to click “Pin It”, which means I can save that page to my board so I can look at it any time I want. I will also be able to go directly to the source which the resource comes from.
This resource is more for teachers as it can give endless possibilities for lesson ideas and extensions. The great thing about this website is that you can save all of your links right in one place and have access to them at any time without having to save the sources on your computer to find it again. The content standards this resource meets truly depends upon the type of material you are searching for and how you intend to use it. Many of the resources available through this website are teacher created and are already aligned to the Common Core, which is GREAT!
Assessment Tools!
In addition to lesson extensions, there are also many different assessment tools available for teachers simply by searching for them in the search bar.
By adding the word “assessment” to my previous search of “animal habitats”, I now see many different assessment tools I can use for various lessons. Again, these searches can be modified by using specific keywords, such as grade level and content area.
The great thing about Pinterest is that every single thing you search for is linked to a source, which allows you to investigate the source to determine its credibility as well as the usefulness of the item itself. For example, many teachers post their resources on pinterest so when you click on their links you are often brought to their blogs. These blogs often discuss how the resource was used, if it worked, how it is aligned to the standards, etc. In this way, you get an idea of how you may need to modify this for your own classroom. Enjoy Pinning Away!
Reference:
Pinterest-The Visual Discovery Tool. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://pinterest.com