Duh. Pinning.

Pinterest. Yes, seriously, Pinterest.

Now I know what you are thinking. Pinterest is normally associated with middle-aged housewives hoarding copious quantities of recipes and decorating tips. You’re right, actually. This stereotype about the demographic belies the true potential of this social media outlet, however.

For you readers who have yet to take the plunge into the sea of Pinterest, it is a site/application combo that allows the user to grab interesting pictures (and the sites they are located upon) and “pin” them to user-themed “boards”.  One of the most innovating features of the process is the cutesie “Pin It” application the user can apply to their bookmark bar. With just the press of a button, the Pinterest application finds the interesting pictures on the site and allows the user to share it.

While this has been used primarily to shown off one’s good sense of fashion, decoration and gastronomy, its untapped potential is still unbounded. Personally, I just began utilizing Pinterest for the classroom setting.

As I was standing in my office the other day, tapping my foot impatiently as my wife clicked aimlessly on my computer on her Pinterest boards—I will address the topic of people not signing off of their accounts when they use your computer at a later date—I thought to myself, why does this have to be such a “chick thing”? After she finally got off the computer, I sat down and crafted an account for myself.

The practical applications for this have already started to pay off. Instead of the usual boards, mine are history and education themed. A great many of my fellow “Pinners” are teachers who use the site as a means of anonymously sharing ideas and pedagogical techniques. If I were attempting to teach a unit on Abraham Lincoln to a gaggle of fourth graders, for example, I have ready access to step-by-step instructions on how to glue cotton balls together to form a beard or how to craft a stove-pipe hat out of black construction paper. Here’s where Pinterest’s drawbacks become readily apparent.

The largest detractor from Pinterest is the fairly limited scope of its educational usage. While my wife can (and does) spend countless hours scouring the boards of colleagues and complete strangers alike, stealing management methods, borrowing craft activities and waxing melodically over “cute ideas”, my interactions have been far more limited. Going into the upcoming school year, I will be teaching primarily Advanced Placement-level sophomores. These students are especially adept at outwardly loathing arts and craft activities. But where there is a will, there is a way. Or several.

Since it first burst out into the limelight, Pinterest has spread faster than Snooki’s arrest caught on tape. While many stereotypes  are currently afflicting it, if more and more secondary social studies teachers begin to employ it, its usefulness will increase a hundredfold. I, myself, will be valiantly attempting to further the cause on Pinterest. Search my boards for cool ideas, or share some new ones with me. I’ll be doing so myself as @MrLHistory.