Aaron Goodwin, 29, was working at Cardinal Hume School, in Gateshead, when he accessed the dating app.
A disciplinary panel found he also used Skype outside work to say he had carried out a sex act on school premises. He had denied the allegation.
He was found guilty of unacceptable conduct and banned from teaching.
The National College of Teaching and Leadership hearing was told Mr Goodwin admitted accessing Grindr in 2014 to check messages, which was in breach of the school's social media policies.
In May 2013, Goodwin conducted a conversation with a male on Skype in which he revealed he was a teacher, said he was attracted to boys in their early teens and masturbated at work, the panel found.
Fifteen months later, he used the software application to contact a different person and requested they resend a number of explicit videos involving underage boys.
Goodwin claimed he had not been responsible for those conversations - blaming an individual he said had access to his flat and laptop between 2012 and 2014.
However, the disciplinary panel ruled against him and described his actions as "calculated".
While finding there was no evidence he had caused direct harm to any pupils, it said he had "encouraged the distribution of illegal sexual content involving minors".
An allegation he used Grindr to invite a member of the public to meet him in a toilet was unproven.
The indefinite teaching ban comes into force immediately. He had worked as a teacher since 2008.
Goodwin has 28 days to appeal against the decision.
A supply teacher who used Grindr on school premises and boasted of being attracted to young boys has been banned from the classroom.