Remember when opening a book felt easier than opening another tab?

This week, we’re looking at how the internet keeps getting smarter—while our attention spans keep shrinking.

From a browser that organizes your chaos to a study showing America’s love affair with reading is officially on the rocks, it’s time to ask: are we surfing information or just drowning in it?

Here’s how you’re about to become an even better teacher in the next 6 minutes:

• Noteworthy News: The secret hack to getting your work done 🔐 

• Tech Tool: Say goodbye to Chrome ☄️

• Brainy Bit: We don’t read like we used to 📖

🚀 Noteworthy News

👉️ This is scary: U.S. high schoolers just scored their lowest reading scores since 1992 - what’s going wrong?

👉️ It Only Took 2 Years: The 4-hour rule: how Mark Manson wrote a bestseller (and the science behind it).

👉️ Love of Learning: What old ed-tech flops teach us about AI in schools.

🔉But first, a word from today’s sponsor for teachers who are curious about building their own AI agents (maybe to automate some of their classroom administrative work? 👀) 🔽 

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And now back to making you an even better teacher 👇️ 

TECH TOOL

The Browser That Thinks for You

Remember when browsers just... showed you websites? 

Perplexity’s Comet broke that mold back in July when we first reported on it— but last week they did the unthinkable and made it free. 

Once a $200-a-month AI experiment, Comet is now open to everyone, and it’s not just another chatbot. It’s a full browser that can search, summarize, compare, and organize in real time. 

Think Chrome meets ChatGPT meets your overworked teacher brain on espresso.

The Solution: Comet by Perplexity

Comet isn’t a chat window pretending to browse - it is the browser. 

You can open tabs, pull resources, summarize PDFs, and even draft emails or lesson plans without switching apps. Need to compare five articles for a classroom debate? Comet will analyze all of them at once and surface the main differences.

Teachers can use it to streamline everything: building study plans straight from PDFs in Google Classroom, organizing 400 chaotic tabs into smart categories (like grading, parent emails, or lesson prep), or even hunting down the best deal on new classroom supplies. 

It’s an assistant that lives inside your browser - and this time, it’s free.

Is This for YOUR Classroom?

Comet’s real-time power can overwhelm younger learners, and not every district IT team is going to roll out the welcome mat for an AI browser. 

It’s best for teachers and upper-grade students who already know how to fact-check and analyze. Without good critical thinking habits, it risks becoming a “copy-paste” crutch instead of a catalyst for learning.

Strategies That Work:

1. Research Showdown: Have students use Comet to compare how multiple news sites cover the same event, then discuss bias and tone.

2. Lesson Plan Generator: Drop in your PDF unit guide and let Comet draft a weekly study or review plan - perfect for differentiation.

3. Teacher Command Center: Use Comet to organize your tabs into categories (grading, planning, communication) and finally close the clutter guilt-free.

Comet isn’t just a better browser - it’s a glimpse of what the next phase of teaching tech looks like.

It saves time, reduces noise, and turns curiosity into something actionable. And best of all, this future now costs exactly zero dollars.

Brainy Bit

The Great Reading Recession

TLDR: Over 20 years of U.S. data reveal a steady decline in daily reading for pleasure, down from 28% in 2004 to just 16% in 2023. 

According to this study, reading isn’t just losing its audience—it’s losing its advocates. The problem isn’t that kids don’t read; it’s that fewer adults do, and that silence trickles down.

The Study: The decline in reading for pleasure

Researchers examined data from 236,270 Americans collected through the American Time Use Survey between 2003 and 2023

Participants detailed every activity they did in a 24-hour period, including how much time they spent reading for personal interest or with children.

The study didn’t just measure if people read—it tracked who, how often, and for how long. 

It found significant shifts across age, income, race, and education, revealing that reading for fun has become a rare luxury, not a common habit.

The Results:

• Only 16% of Americans read for pleasure on a typical day—down from 28% two decades ago.

• The average time spent reading has dropped from 23 minutes to 16 minutes a day. Those who still read tend to read longer, but they’re a shrinking minority.

• The decline cuts across all demographics but is steepest among younger adults. Reading with children also remains alarmingly low—just 2% of adults reported doing so on an average day.

In YOUR Classroom:

If reading is shrinking nationwide, schools may be the last line of defense for growing lifelong readers.

Here’s how this study might improve your classroom this week:

Strategies That Work:

• Read what you love until you love reading: Model genuine curiosity. Let students—and colleagues—see that you read things that interest you, not just what’s assigned.

• Make reading visible again: Post a “What We’re Reading” wall or a staff book shelf. Kids copy what they see.

• Unplug with purpose: Challenge your class to swap 10 scroll minutes for 10 story minutes. Track it visually—like a reading “anti-trend” chart.

Reading for pleasure is one of the simplest ways to build empathy, imagination, and focus. 

The numbers may be dropping, but the fix still starts small—with us. 

Every book cracked open in front of our students tells them what matters.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

We would LOVE to hear from you!

Reply to this email, or send us a message on Instagram! We’re here to walk with you in these crazy times!

Part of what makes The PEN Weekly community so special is the fact that our readers are teachers from around the world! We’re not going to lie, we think that’s pretty darn cool!

We’ll see you again on Monday 🍎

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