Two popular user-driven websites have launched campaigns aimed at getting teachers needed resources.
Pinterest, the virtual pinboarding website that has already proven a hit with teachers, announced its new teacher “hub” last week. According to the company’s blog post, “Teachers on Pinterest” includes “everything from lesson plans for different grades, to classroom decorating ideas, and topics like fun with phonics.” While many teachers were already creating pinboards with these tools, the hub is intended to make teaching-relevant resources easier to find. Pinterest teamed up with Edutopia to jumpstart the content collection.
Meantime, the social news site Reddit announced its second (and hopefully annual) redditgifts for the Teachers exchange, in which teachers request supplies for their classrooms and Reddit users sign up to send them care packages. (The process is not unlike Donors Choose, but with materials instead of money.) Sign-ups for the exchanges started today and go through Sept. 3. Packages are expected to be in the mail to teachers by Sept. 20. Hundreds of people have already signed up—and so far there are more givers than receivers, so teachers, you might want to get on this.