Oh Dear! Time does fly quickly! I never thought relocating and getting settled in Uganda was going to keep me away from blogging for so long. But I am back and armed with a generator (there are power outages every day here), the best internet service I could find (sometimes a simple 3 minute Youtube video takes hours to load) and a nice home with happy kids. So, I am ready to roll and I am more enthusiastic than ever to keep on sharing, learning and applying awesome innovative ideas, in spite of the tech difficulties I am encountering here in Uganda.

I want to inaugurate mi comeback with a post about the 21st century teaching skill of “Curating”

Oh yes, curating is not only for museums. Why is curating important in education? Well, have you noticed the vast amount of information out there? Any time you research online you are given loads and loads of possible sources back. But, have you also noticed that many of them are useless? The amount of garbage out there is just humongous and ridiculous.

The 21st century skill of curating is all about finding, preserving, separating and sharing the good resources and information out there. As Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano explains in her Langwitches Blog: ”We are with no doubt in the age of information overload and in dire need of knowing how to filter in order to get to the information we need.”

And oh the wonderful ideas, resources, examples, projects, lessons, rubrics, knowledge … found on the internet for teaching a language are tons. More and more teachers are sharing their amazing ideas and work.

I tried different tools for organizing these finds, but I had not found one that aloud me to organize and save them with only a click. I also wanted something visually appealing and easy to navigate.

And then I found Pinterest!

Pinterest is a Social Media pinning tool, where you literally pin your valuable finds on a board of your choice. The Social aspect of it makes the tool so much more interesting because you see the pins of people you follow and can include them in your own boards. It also lets you collaborate with others to create collective pinning boards.

Below is a picture of my Pinterest Boards, Spanish4Teachers Pinterest. Each of the little boards has a name and it contains specific resources. For example, I created the ‘Class Activities Board‘ where i have ‘curated’ wonderful in-class-activities for the foreign language classroom. I also have a ‘Spanish Project Ideas Board‘, a ‘Videos para la Clase de Español Board‘, and 40+ more boards of resources for Spanish classes. Don’t you think it looks great? Don’t you think organizing your ‘web-finds’ this way will make it much easier for you to go back and look for something? Doesn’t it just make you want to share!

How I Use Pinterest in my Spanish Classrooms

My Spanish students have benefited from all of the innovative activities we have done in class because I have found them on Pinterest. But, I must say that I do not yet use Pinterest with my students per se. I have been using it to curate my finds and to get ideas and materials.

However, through Pinterest I have found ways of using it in foreign language classes with students. Here are some articles:

• Utiliser Pinterest en classe de Fle: 10 Idées
• Teachers pin with their students
• 3 Creative ways teachers can use Pinterest
• 16 ways educators can use Pinterest
• Pinterest and lesson planning

Pinterest Tutorial

Alternatively, you can watch the videos here: Pinterest tutorial Part 1, Pinterest tutorial Part 2 and Pinterest tutorial Part 3

Pinterest tips, trick and things to keep in mind

• Follow the links before pinning: spammers are everywhere, they are even on Pinterest. So make sure you follow the pin before re-pining.
• Pinning websites without pictures: if there is a website that you want to pin but it does not have any pin-able images, then take a screenshot of the website and upload it manually. After the screenshot has been uploaded and saved, click on edit and add the url of the website.

          

• Saving pins without re-pinning: I have come across many pins that I want to save because I will find them handy at some point, but I don’t necessarily want to create a board for them. The way I save them is by ‘liking’ them. When you ‘like’ a pin it gets saved and you can always go back and find it. To view these liked pins click on “Likes”.

• Creating private boards: to create a private board that only you can see, turn ‘On’ the “Secret” button when creating a board.
• Collaborative boards: when creating a board, type the Pinterest name of the people you want to include or write their email address. If the board was already created and you want to make it collaborative, click on edit and follow these same steps.
• Looking for people to follow: type in a search term in the search-box at the top left. You can then filter the results by ‘Pins’, ‘Boards’ or ‘Pinners’. You can also view people’s followers or who they are following by viewing their profiles (click on their name) and clicking on “Followers” or “Following”.

• Boards can be reorganized, but not individual pins: to reorganize your boards click on the button that looks like a TV (while on your profile page). Then drag and drop the boards in the order you want them. When done, make sure you click that little button again to save your changes.

Take a look at what foreign language teachers have been pinning…AMAZING!

Spanish

• Spanish4Teachers  on Pinterest
• Spanish Class
• Recursos – Spanish Classroom
• Spanish Teaching
• Español
• Clara Sanchez Marcos’ ELE Boards

French

• Français
• French Resources (15-18)
• French as a Second Language Lesson Ideas
• Games for French Class

English

• English
• ESL
• English Class
• English Language & Literature

Mandarin

• Mandarin Learning
• Online Mandarin
• Language – Chinese, Mandarin
• Chinese Language Classroom 

Other awesome Pinboards

• IB Online Education
• Ed Tech
• All bout EdTech
• Education & 21st Century Skills

Do you have a foreign language Pinterest board that you’d like to share? Please post a link to it in the comments section. Thank you!

Image Credit