MAKING IT EASIER TO BE A BETTER TEACHER

NOTEWORTHY NEWS

Here’s our weekly roundup of interesting education stories from around the world. Click each link to dive deeper:

• Scientific literacy may be dropping faster than expected - is it impacting more than just the classroom?

• Teachers are sounding the alarm bells about a lack in critical thinking skills - is AI to blame?

• ChatGPT is now an excellent creative writer - at least according to OpenAI’s CEO.

BRAINY BITS

Can email really make them better at math?

This week, we’re cracking open a national 2025 megastudy that tested whether simple weekly emails to teachers could improve student math progress. 

The answer? Yes—but only a little, and only with the right kind of message.

The Study: National mega study on personalized emails and math

Over 140,000 teachers and nearly 3 million students were part of this massive experiment - one of the largest of its kind!

Researchers tested 15 different email nudges, all designed to encourage teachers to log into Zearn - the Math platform these teachers were using with their students. 

Some emails included behavior tips, while others showed personalized student progress. Over four weeks, they tracked how many lessons students completed, plus teacher logins and student time on task.

The Results

• The best email—prompting teachers to log in weekly - boosted student lesson completion by up to 5.06%.

• Emails with personalized student data performed better, improving progress by 2.26%.

The surprise? Researchers expected bigger results. Changing behavior - even with good emails - is tough.

In Your Classroom:

No one is arguing that teachers need more emails sent to them. But this study takes a unique approach - impacting us teachers rather than the students - to improve math learning.

Here’s how you can use this research in your classroom:

Strategies

• Personalization matters: Emails with real data beat generic messages for teachers, students, and even parents.

• Small nudges help: Just reminding teachers to log in made a difference - similar results may be seen with students too!

• Keep expectations real: Big changes come from small wins stacked over time.

Sometimes the best research isn’t about using a new tool - it’s just a smarter way to remind teachers and students to stay engaged. 

A well-timed nudge may be all it takes to push math learning a little further.

TECH TOOL

Making math ‘click’

Many students struggle to visualize math concepts, especially in areas like geometry, fractions, and algebra. 

Traditional worksheets and whiteboard demonstrations often fall short when it comes to helping learners explore abstract relationships. 

For teachers, creating hands-on, engaging, and differentiated math tasks can be time-consuming and limited by physical resources.

The Solution: Polypad

Polypad, created by the team behind Mathigon, is a free digital math canvas filled with virtual manipulatives. 

From algebra tiles and geometric shapes to number lines and spinners, Polypad offers an intuitive, drag-and-drop environment that brings math to life - no more boxes of manipulatives from 30 years ago.

Students can explore concepts interactively, building their own models and visual proofs, while teachers can design dynamic lessons and share templates instantly with their class.

In Your Classroom:

Manipulatives can be a great way to make math more engaging - especially for early learners. Polypad helps bring these key strategies into the 21st century.

Here’s how Polypad can upgrade your math lessons this week:

Strategies

• Geometry Exploration
  Use Polypad to let students experiment with polygons, angles, and symmetry. Have them build shapes, rotate them, and explore concepts like congruence —without needing scissors or paper.

• Fractions and Operations Made Visual
  Students often struggle with fraction equivalence and operations. Let them model these concepts using fraction bars or circles directly on the canvas. 

• Warm-ups and Exit Tickets
  Create quick, interactive activities like "drag-and-drop" number puzzles or geometry sorting challenges. Share them with a single link and have students submit screenshots or reflections.

Polypad gives teachers a flexible, visual way to engage students in deeper math thinking. It’s 100% free and no logins or downloads are required.

Whether you’re introducing a new topic or helping students explore it from a different angle, Polypad brings clarity to the abstract and creativity to the classroom.

REFERENCES

This week’s issue adapts information from the following sources below:

Tech Talk:

Amplify Education. (2024). Welcome to Polypad! Retrieved from https://polypad.amplify.com/

Brainy Bits:

A.L. Duckworth, A. Ko, K.L. Milkman, J.S. Kay, E. Dimant, D.M. Gromet, A. Halpern, Y. Jung, M.K. Paxson, R.A.S. Zumaran, R. Berman, I. Brody, C.F. Camerer, E.A. Canning, H. Dai, M. Gallo, H.E. Hershfield, M.D. Hilchey, A. Kalil, K.M. Kroeper, A. Lyon, B.S. Manning, N. Mazar, M. Michelini, S.E. Mayer, M.C. Murphy, P. Oreopoulos, S.E. Parker, R. Rondina, D. Soman, & C.V.D. Bulte, A national megastudy shows that email nudges to elementary school teachers boost student math achievement, particularly when personalized, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (13) e2418616122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2418616122 (2025).