Padlet: A Pinboard That's Actually Useful

Ever seen something taught in an innovative way and thought to yourself, "Man I'm going to do that next time!" Me too. But guess what? By the time next time comes around, I usually always forget what exactly it I was going to do. But...not anymore! This year, I started using an online pinboard called Padlet to keep track of my thinking. Padlet is a great tool to help you save ideas (books, lesson plans, etc.), collaborate with other professionals, and even collaborate with your students. What I love about it is that I can use it on my computer or on the app because, let's face it, all the best ideas come to you when you are nowhere near your computer.

Padlet is super simple to use. When you want to begin a new pinboard, you simply click the bright pink button in the upper right hand corner of the screen that says "New Padlet". Here's what that corner will look like:

You will then be directed to a new page which you can customize with various backgrounds and layouts. And here is where the real organization comes in. To add a new memo, all you have to do is click the pink + button in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. You can attach a photo, link, audio message, or video to your post, easily by selecting one of the icons along with tags to remind you of why in the world you saved the post in the first place.

For example, I made a Padlet to keep track of all of those amazing mentor texts that I see other teachers using or are recommended to me through another educator or professional development class. Click here for the link to that Padlet.

Padlet is also great to use with students -- I will be using it this year as a way for students to recommend books to their peers. 

Here are a few Padlet examples to check out before you start one of your own:

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Happy Padlet-ing!