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:

• Think you work the most? Here’s how your workload compares to teachers across the globe.

• Student brains function differently when they’re looking at a screen compared to a book - at least according to this study.

• Science just figured out the best way to teach math.

BRAINY BITS

Their screen time might be a cry for help.

A 2025 UK study suggests that how teens feel on social media matters more than how long they’re on it - especially for those diagnosed with anxiety or depression.

Teens with internalizing mental health conditions weren’t just online more - they were emotionally entangled in it.

The Study: Social Media & Mental Health in Adolescents

Researchers analyzed data from over 3,340 adolescents aged 11 to 19, using clinical interviews and reports from parents and teachers to assess mental health diagnoses. 

Social media habits were self-reported, focusing on time spent online and emotional responses to digital interactions.

The study categorized mental health conditions into internalizing (e.g., anxiety, depression) and externalizing (e.g., ADHD, conduct disorders) groups. 

The Results

Here’s what stood out:

• Time Online: Teens with any mental health condition spent about 50 more minutes daily on social media.

• Internalizing Conditions: Adolescents with anxiety and depression were more likely to compare themselves to others online and experienced mood changes based on likes and comments.

• Externalizing Conditions: No significant differences were found in online behaviors for teens with conditions like ADHD or conduct disorders, except for increased time spent on social media.

In Your Classroom:

This doesn’t mean phones are evil or Instagram is inherently toxic.

But it does mean social media behavior can be a mirror into a student’s emotional life.

Here’s how this research might shape your approach this week:

Strategies

• Ask students how their online lives make them feel - not just how much they scroll.

• Watch for obsessive behavior around phones or friend counts.

• Create moments of digital mindfulness: “How did the last post you saw make you feel?”

• Partner with counselors (if available) when emotional investment in social media starts to feel all-consuming.

Research like this shows us that mental health often shows up in digital footprints first. 

And teachers? 

We might be the first to notice.

TECH TOOL

Sources? LOL

Ever assign students a research project only to receive a Frankenstein-style patchwork of poorly paraphrased Google blurbs, AI hallucinations, and at least one Wikipedia paragraph that still includes the [citation needed]? 

Yeah. Thought so. 

In a world of too much information and too little curation, students aren’t just struggling to find sources - they're struggling to understand them.

The Solution:  NotebookLM’s New Mobile App

That’s right. Google’s AI-powered research assistant, NotebookLM, has officially made the leap to mobile - and it might just rescue student research from the digital dumpster fire. 

Previously web-only, the new NotebookLM app for iOS and Android puts a personalized AI tutor right in students’ pockets.

They can upload documents, websites, PDFs, and Google Docs on the go, and the app turns those sources into an interactive Q&A chatbot trained only on that material.

Say goodbye to random AI guesses or off-topic summaries. NotebookLM keeps the conversation grounded in your actual sources. 

Students can read, annotate, and chat with their materials while commuting, sitting in study hall, or ignoring that group project text thread. 

The app also supports voice input and smart citations, and all files stay tied to the notebook they’re uploaded into, making it easy to build topic-specific study hubs.

In Your Classroom:

Even if you’re already using NotebookLM, you’ll want to check out the new mobile version. It’s snappy, minimalist, and (mercifully) distraction-free.

Here’s how you can get started with it this week:

Strategies

• Empower independent learners. Students who struggle with reading comprehension can now “talk to the text” right on their phone. It’s especially helpful for multilingual learners or students in AP/IB courses.

• Launch research units with source folders. Upload curated readings into a shared NotebookLM notebook and have them explore, summarize, and question their sources.

• Scaffold deeper reading skills. Reinforce critical thinking by having students practice asking higher-order questions to their notebooks. Can NotebookLM explain tone? Argument structure? Contrasting perspectives?

NotebookLM’s free mobile debut is more than a feature update - it’s a full-on upgrade to the student research experience. 

No more dragging laptops to the library or toggling between PDFs and ChatGPT tabs. Just real-time, source-aware support, wherever students are. 

If you’re tired of teaching the difference between a quote and a copy-paste, give this one a try.

REFERENCES

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

Tech Talk:

Wang, B.. (2025). Understand anything, anywhere with the new NotebookLM app. Retrieved from https://blog.google/technology/ai/notebooklm-app/

Brainy Bits:

Fassi, L., Ferguson, A.M., Przybylski, A.K. et al. Social media use in adolescents with and without mental health conditions. Nat Hum Behav (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02134-4