Top 5 Reasons Why Band Directors Should Use Pinterest

Pinterest is a fantastic tool for the busy band director. Not a current Pinterest user? Here are 5 reasons why you should get on board:

1.) Organize your ideas

No more losing track of all of those great ideas you find online! Think of Pinterest as a virtual bulletin board or cork board. Say goodbye to all those old fashioned cork boards and yellow post-it notes (although they are still found scattered all over our office desks!) Once you create a Pinterest account, you can organize content you find online onto your Pinterest boards. For example, if you find a great article on banddirectorstalkshop.com about crossing the break on clarinet, you could “pin” (save) that article to a board that you name “Beginning Clarinet.” Want to save that great technology tool you found? Create a board called “Technology in Band” and pin it there for future reference.

2.) It’s easy to set up and FREE!

How do you get started? It’s easy! Simply create an account on Pinterest.com. From there, you can start creating the boards you need for organizing all of your teaching ideas. Suggestions are woodwind pedagogy, brass pedagogy, theory worksheets, music theory games, recruiting, motivation, etc. While you’re at it, consider making boards for personal use too, such as quick and easy meals, vacations and more.

3.) Find new ideas for your band

Pinterest is a visual search engine, which is appealing to many of the visual learners we find today. Did you know that as of May 2019, there are over 290 million active monthly Pinterest users? Did you know that there are over 75 BILLION pins on Pinterest? Think of all of the ideas to be explored! Once you have created your Pinterest account, simply use their search bar to type in whatever topic you’d like to explore. Here are some examples of what comes up when you type “clarinet embouchure” in the search bar. The visual search is so helpful!

4.) Save images & content you find online

Pinterest has a great tool called the Pinterest Browser Button. With a couple of quick clicks, you can quickly pin images you find online. Once you have the browser button installed on Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge, images can be saved from anywhere on the web. Whenever you find content you want to save, click the red Pinterest button at the top of your browser. From there, you can select the image you want to save and choose what board you would like to save it to in your Pinterest account. Once you’ve created a Pinterest account, you can install the browser button HERE. This is a picture of what the Pinterest browser button looks like: