Yes, I'm another Pinterest-addicted Teacher!

I have been very busy getting things ready to go for the new school year. We have decided to switch from "Summer Camp" to "School" the day after Labor Day. While I've been getting the room ready, I've had kiddos coming & going as well. Some are leaving to start Preschool at other programs, and some have officially "aged out" of my room. This also means I've had some brand new threes start. Needless to say, it's been a busy & wonderful few weeks in our room.

I wanted to write a post about this wonderful addiction most everyone is aware of: Pinterest.

Seriously, if you work with preschoolers in any capacity: day care, home day care, school district, private school-- whatever!-- you NEED to be on Pinterest. Why? Because it is full of great ideas from teaching lessons to free printables to classroom management to classroom set up to things to do that break you from your every day boredom. It has proven to me to be a valuable resource over and over again.

I have at this moment in time almost 3,000 pins on my Pinterest boards, and most of them are Early Childhood related. Don't believe me? Check out my boards: Learning With Threes on Pinterest

Now if you aren't familiar with how this site works, here's the quick simple explanation: all of those pictures represent links to websites, or blogs with information about the picture. This information has always been out there, but Pinterest makes it way easier to locate and file. In addition, I'm a visual person so if I see a picture I'm more apt to remember I have a resource on that topic.

So you sign up for a brand-spankin' new Pinterest account and now what? Here are a few tips for newbies to Pinterest who want to get the most out of it:

- Don't use broad headings for your board. You can have as many boards as you need. Avoid using "Preschool" to name a board then pinning everything related to Preschool to it. Try narrowing your boards down by category- "Preschool- Art", "Preschool- Gross Motor", "Infant Classroom Ideas", etc. You'll thank me later when you have 3,000 pins and need to find something quick!

- ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS click the picture to make sure it actually goes to the idea. I don't know how many times I've gone to a blog post and it's not the right one. It's frustrating I know, but there are tricks you can use to find the original source.

-You can follow all of some one's boards, or just a few of their boards. I love my friends to death, but some of their boards just don't interest me-- "Pretty People" for example, I really don't care about "hot" celebrities. You can unfollow boards if it doesn't interest you-- and don't hesitate to do it! This keeps your feed things that interest you!

- Use the search bar at the top left of your Pinterest header to search for pins, boards, and people. Type in what you're searching for, then it will take you to a new page. Directly below this search bar is this: "Pins * Boards * People". Click on them to change what you are searching for.

- Pinterest has apps for smart phones, & I use mine a lot. But sometimes I want to just save a pin until I can get home and get on the laptop before I check it out. For this Pinterest has the "like" button. I click the "like" button when I want to save something but don't necessarily want to pin it just yet-- what if it turns out to be spam? or not the right blog post?-- these pins are saved in your "Likes" and you can go back and look at them, then decide to re-pin or not.

- This is just a personal preference of mine but if you link your Facebook & Pinterest, please do not post your pins to Facebook. This eats up your friends' timelines and odds are if you are friends with them on facebook, you will follow them/they will follow you on Pinterest. This is also true of Twitter!

These are just a few tips and pointers I have as a self-proclaimed Pinterest addict. If you have any specific questions, please leave a comment and I will try to help!

Tomorrow I plan to post about the DIY Light Table that Pinterest helped me build for our room!
Until then--