Pinterest in the Math Classroom

Early in the year, I ask students to participate in some ice breakers and get-to-know-you activities. I typically play Math Bingo as a first activity. I ask students to walk around to music and when the music stops, find the person closest to see if they can sign something on the math bingo sheet. The bingo sheet has some facts that include numbers. For example, “I have an even number of siblings (not including me).” If the fact is true for that students’ partner, they can sign the box. Of course, the first person to get bingo (five in a row) wins a prize. This lesson can be adapted to make use of social bookmarking.

I chose to adapt this lesson plan because I want to know more about my students that the facts I anticipate. The math bingo shares some information about my students, but not enough. If I ask students to use Pinterest to share facts about them, I will learn much more about them. I will still keep the bingo aspect of the game with some anticipated facts to give the ice breaker a game-like feel. However, this time the facts will be about their pins.

Please find my revised lesson plan by viewing the link.

An advantage of using Pinterest to gather information about students is the fact that there is no limit on the types of interests students will be able to share with me. They can easily search a topic and find a pin to share. However, a disadvantage is that this means students might find/be exposed to inappropriate content. I will have to make Pinterest available to my students on the network. Hopefully, by carefully monitoring students screens via ChromeManagement, I should be able to prevent or catch any inappropriate pins. The lesson also introduces the students to Pinterest as a way to manage resources both for my class and for life. Pinterest provides suggestions and students should not have trouble finding things that interest them. With Pinterest, I can use the board to review student interests at a later date when I am thinking about ways to engage my students. I might even be able to mention some of these hobbies or interests in parent-teacher conferences as a way to start the conversation.