How could Pinterest ever be considered an enemy of teachers? The sharing of ideas, the cute classroom decorations, and projects galore is wonderful for teachers! How could Pinterest ever be the downfall of a teacher or be considered an enemy of teachers?
Well, I can think of three reasons why Pinterest can be a teacher’s worst enemy. If Pinterest isn’t used in the right way it can become more of hindrance to your teaching instead of an aid. In this post, there are three traps that teachers can fall into in relation to Pinterest and tips to avoid those traps.
1. Idea Overload
Sometimes your biggest strength can be your biggest weakness. Pinterest is the place for ideas. Ideas here. Ideas there. Quite frankly, ideas are found everywhere on every subject. Ideas on any subject can be found from just a basic search.
In the area of education, there are cute and perfect ideas constantly in your notifications. Then, you start to consider the huge boards on education and related subjects all throughout the Pinterest community. Boards with hundreds of pins and ideas have been collected. Some of your own boards with hundred of pins of ideas collected over the years, and then we start to make the connection that we have a situation of IDEA OVERLOAD!
We start to realize that the mass of ideas that we have accumulated over the years is overwhelming. What starts to happen is that the great ideas get lost in the good ideas within our boards. Great ideas get lost in our own boards because of the mass of ideas we have collected from Pinterest. We start to see we have more ideas than we could ever use. Teachers are so overloaded and overwhelmed with ideas!
I personally think that this is one of the greatest challenges of current teachers today. What is the challenge? Dealing with the mass of ideas for every subject, standard, or objective that we teach. The challenge is that we aren’t dealing with a shortage of ideas to teach a particular thing, but an over abundance of ideas to teach a certain thing. Idea overload is surely a trap that all educators need to be aware of when searching and pinning on Pinterest. Idea overload is certainly a trap that educators should consider and address.
So, how can I deal with Idea Overload? Organize!
Organize Boards
Our Pinterest boards are a lot like our classrooms: they need maintenance and time to organize. The next time you are on Pinterest take some time for your own boards. Not your Pinterest notifications or the other boards filled with ideas, but your own. Take some time to review your boards and I expect you will find it as rewarding as I have. Lost ideas are found again and pinned ideas long ago give you an urge to read the content all over again.
After reviewing your boards, you might realize that you can create a new board to split an old board in half to make your boards more practical, useful, and organized so ideas are now more easily found.
On Pinterest, there is an option to organize your boards. If you click on the board, it will say “organize” on the desktop version or “select” on the app version. When you click that, it will have options to move or delete pins. This way, you can easily move pins to another board or completely delete the pin.
Filter Boards
In my opinion, Pinterest boards should not only be organized by categories, but also filtered for your benefit. Some type of filtering system can make sure that the great ideas don’t get lost in the sea of good ideas. Everyone is different, but I recommend having a filter system that includes at least 2 boards for each major category. For example, I would recommend having a “future cooking ideas” board and a “used cooking ideas” board. Of course, there are so many filters that you can use to make your boards more organized, useful, and practical.
Teachers could have a “future classroom management” board, “reference classroom management” board, and a “used classroom management” board. It takes some time to filter your boards, but Pinterest doesn’t have a limit to the boards you can have. The time invested in filtering will make your boards far more useful and practical for you. Filtering saves you time in the long run and can be quite enjoyable!
Another way to filter your boards is to have a board for each subject or each standard you teach. For example, if you want a board for 4th grade math, you could acquire quite a number of pins. So you could split up the board into the domains of math that you teach. So your boards could be “4th Grade Math Geometry” or “4th Grade Math Fractions.” This will help you be able to find ideas faster and easier.
Have Good Pinning or Filtering Questions
If you set up an organization system like the ones mentioned above, you are well on your way to combating the trap of idea overload on Pinterest. I recommend setting up filter boards for yourself and then base your pins and filtering off that.
So, if your boards are future ideas, reference ideas, and used ideas for classroom management, the only two places you can pin classroom management ideas from your feed is to the future ideas or the reference section. The only time something moves to the used board is if you actually use it or implement it in the classroom. Well, won’t the used board be the smallest board then? Yes it will be.
Slowly but surely, you can conquer the trap of idea overload by utilizing these tips.
2. Distracted from the Objective
Probably all of us from time to time have realized that we have spent way too much time on Pinterest. It all starts with good intentions with a search on a subject that we really are trying to find ideas for, and ends with 30 minutes gone and 15 new pins on ideas from a completely different area.
My phone started to track my screen time and I was surprised to see how easily and how long I get sucked into the Pinterest abyss of ideas. Of course our time is something we should consider when it comes to Pinterest. Perhaps we should consider how we get distracted from what is really important. For example, are the ideas we are finding actually tied to what we are supposed to be teaching?
It’s so easy to get distracted by the cute idea, the perfect idea, and the creative idea. We get so lost and distracted that we are pinning ideas that don’t even tie to what we are teaching or will ever teach. I pin a middle school or high school idea because it is cute, but I am teaching elementary!
How easily do we get distracted by the good ideas that doesn’t tie to anything that we teach?
It is so easy to pin what is cute and original, but not what matches our standards and what we teach. Seems like Pinterest leads us away into unrelated areas that we didn’t search. Distractions from all sides lead to pins in unrelated areas, and cute ideas that are in no way close to what we are suppose to be teaching.
So, how can I deal with being Distracted from the Objective? Prioritize!
Search with terms and standards in mind.
I think we get on Pinterest almost as a mindless routine. We seem to get a feeling like, I need to check my Pinterest notifications. Sometimes I will search Pinterest whenever I have downtime anywhere. Which can lead to many distractions.
What I encourage you to do to minimize distractions is to start with a goal in mind. What do you want to find? What are you looking for? Stay committed to the goal that you set and don’t let yourself get dragged away by the distracting ideas all around Pintrest.
One way to do this is before you launch Pinterest, write on a scrap piece of paper or a post it note your goal, the standard, and some search terms before you start. Just the act of writing this down before launching Pinterest will reaffirm your commitment to not get distracted from your main goal. The search terms, the goal, and the standard written beside you will draw you back to your task when you start to drift into the Pinterest abyss. When you glance to the side and see your notes, you will be redirected to your task at hand.
3. Perfection
Another trap on Pinterest is that it can be a little bit depressing as your feed is filled with original, cute, and perfect classrooms and ideas. You start to wonder if you’re the only noncreative person in the world. Good ideas fill Pinterest and perhaps we start to feel inadequate and that nothing good or productive is happening in our classroom.
Pinterest in some ways, with all of the wonderful ideas, paints a picture of a perfect classroom with perfect ideas. News Flash! The world isn’t perfect and neither will your classroom be perfect!
After scrolling through Pinterest for a while we emerge with unrealistic expectations and perfection at the forefront of our minds. Individuals certainly are not creating pins of their worst and putting it on Pinterest. They are not putting their worst, but their best on Pinterest. This creates a false sense of reality, and after a Pinterest trip we have to snap back into reality. It has nothing do with being pessimistic, but realistic. You have to snap out of Pinterest Perfection and deal in the real world grind of teaching everyday.
Pinterest is a great and wonderful platform to share and use ideas. However, we have to be careful that we are not too hard on ourselves as our account is filled with some of the best ideas from teachers all over the world.
So, how can I deal with the Pinterest Perfection? Mindset!
1. Reality Check
Just because something can be done in someone else’s classroom doesn’t mean it is practical or realistic to be in yours. As you are looking through Pinterest ask yourself questions that will keep you in reality. Would this be good for my classroom, students, or me? Is this something that I would be likely to implement in my classroom, for my students or me? Is this a realistic lesson, or idea for my situation?
The best ideas are all throughout Pinterest and no teacher is implementing all of them. Don’t be so hard on yourself and ask yourself what ideas can realistically be accomplished in your own classroom.
No teacher is perfect. Teaching is a hard profession. You need to do the best you can. Don’t compare yourself to others. They are in a completely different situation than you are. You should always strive to be the best teacher you can be, but this does not mean you have to be perfect.
Pinterest is undeniably a fantastic tool for educators, but it can become a trap and your enemy if you let it. Next time you are on Pinterest, watch out for the traps of Idea Overload, Distraction from the Objective, and Pinterest Perfection. All of these traps can easily hijack the tool of Pinterest and use it against you. Try to organize, prioritize, and keep the right mindset as continue to pin!
Thank you for Continually Learning with us!
Kyle and Sarah
