Being new to Pinterest, which advertises itself as “a tool for collecting and organizing things you love,” I was curious to see what it had to offer on women’s history month, the month that honors women and their accomplishments.
For those unfamiliar with Pinterest, the following excerpt from Pinterest For Dummies sums it up pretty well:
Pinterest is an online pinboard, a visual take on the social bookmarking site. Unlike other social bookmarking sites, such as Digg and StumbleUpon, content shared on Pinterest is driven entirely by visuals. In fact, you can’t share something on Pinterest unless an image is involved.
Like every other social media site, Pinterest has its own lingo:
- When you share something on Pinterest, each bookmark is called a pin.
- When you share someone else’s pin on Pinterest, it’s called a repin.
- You group pins together by topic onto various boards or pinboards in your profile. Each board mimics a real-life pinboard.
You can share images you find online, or you can directly upload images onto Pinterest. Using the Pin It button, you can share directly in your browser from any web page. You can also share your pins on Twitter and Facebook.
After you set up a Pinterest account, you can search the site for “women’s history month” and a page will appear with thousands of “pins.” If you then click on the “Boards” button, thousands of boards will appear with even more pins.
You will be amazed at the information you can find by searching through the boards. Here is a list of some of the best boards for women’s history month resources.
Library Boards:
- Dracut Library
While many library Boards give recommendations for books about women, they only include the title and author. This site includes a synopsis of each book that is pinned. - Sacramento Public Library
This board had some colorful vintage posters about women’s suffrage. - U-High Library
Had a long list of book recommendations that would be appropriate for high school students.
Stem Boards:
- Matteson Library
Focuses on female STEM innovators. - Livermore Laboratory
Outstanding list of contemporary women working at the Livermore Lab. This shows examples of science careers.
Children’s Books:
- Econ Kids
Includes a list of children’s books along with information on each one. - HarperCollins Children’s
Another list of children’s books published by Harper Collins. Great ideas for student biographies.
Memory Projects:
- Memory Journals
A wonderful board of images, posters, paintings, slogans and photographs about women with captions. A great starting point for research topics.
Universities and schools:
- Cambridge University
Great quotes, by or about famous women. - Walden University
Bios on famous women. - Atlanta Public Schools
Good resources for lesson plans and project ideas.
Websites:
- Wikapatia
Has lovely infographics and posters along with a few reprintable page pins.
Museums:
- Smithsonian Museum
This Board has a wonderful collections of photos and posters of all kind of items related to women. - The Shaker Museum
A nice collection of information on Shaker women from America’s past.
Best Board for Women’s History:
- The National Women’s History Museum
Even though the National Women’s History Museum does not yet exist physically, due to a hold up in Congress that has yet to authorize the use of land at the National Mall, this is by far the most well constructed Board that includes a variety of other Boards about women of color, occupations of women, and other topics. Everyone should write their Congressmen and women and demand that National Women’s History Museum Act of 2011 be passed. (Click here to see how to contact your elected officials and to see a sample letter.) Support the National Women’s History Museum online. The museum will be built with private contributions not public tax dollars. Click here for more info.
By Susan Ridgeway, Wooster Education Association
