Pinterest - What I've Learned and What I LOVE!

Only recently have I gotten on board with Pinterest... when I first heard about it my initial reaction was, what do I need a virtual pin board for? I would never use that, it sounds so silly! BOY WAS I WRONG!! I am loving Pinterest! I have learned that it can be a great tool (as well as a great distraction from doing anything else.) There are some important things I've learned to help keep my boards in tip top shape:

1. Make different boards/categories - At first I was pinning things under very general categories, but the more I pinned the more I found themes and started making separate boards. I love this because now if I am looking for an anchor chart for reading I just have to look in my reading board. I still keep a general board for teaching, because sometimes I just love ideas and don't know where to put them... BUT every so often I go back in and see if I can categorize any of my new pins, even if that means adding a new board!
2. Make sure your links work!!! It drives me crazy when I pin something I love (or find someone else's pin) and I go back to see the original post about it and the link doesn't work, OR the link takes me to the general page for the site. So what did I learn? I am very careful (from now on that is) when I pin things. Let's say I'm on the main page for my blog and I want to pin something. I click on the heading to take me to the page that ONLY has the post I want to pin about. (Does this make any sense?) What I mean is if on my main page you can see ALL my posts for the past month, but I want to pin an image that was included in a post from the very beginning of the month, then I click on that specific post and pin the image from there. By doing this as long as the image or post is not removed then the pin should always work.
3. Use your pins to help you stay organized! I find great lessons or activities I want to try with my kids. I pin them so I don't forget! There are so many great teacher blogs out there and I've found so many great ideas it's hard to remember them all - this is where I am finding Pinterest to be the most useful and helpful! I'm pinning all the lessons, anchor charts, games, activities, centers, craftivities, and projects that I want to remember and try to use in my classroom.

Pinterest not only helps me save ideas that I like but I'm enjoying following teachers/mothers/companies and seeing what they like. It's inspiring to see others ideas, it's like being able to jump into their mind and see exactly what they like. I have found so many great ideas from looking at other people's boards. It's also helped relight my creative side... it's been a long time since I created new things and seeing how all those pinners out there are taking every day items and turning them into useful teaching tools is so inspiring!

I keep reading "rules" for having a good pin board to please your followers but truth be told, I have a pinterest account to keep ME organized (sorry if that's selfish!!) Granted I love how many followers I have and how people are repinning my ideas, but I've set up my boards in a way that helps me stay organized and I recently started a new board to help with this: "To Do List for September". You see I keep pinning SO many great ideas that I started to feel overwhelmed and wondered how I would ever manage to make ALL of the things I've been pinning, SO I created a pinnable to-do list.... now I have just a few projects that I would LIKE to get done before school starts, hopefully I can accomplish this task! So what's on your to do list for the beginning of the year? Did you make all of the things you wanted to or are you still trying to finish your list?

Thanks for stopping by... leave a link to your pinterest boards I'd love to see what you are pinning!