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:

• Apparently height is an indicator of smarter students - check out what this recent (weird) study found.

• When parents are afraid of math, students struggle even more - at least according to this new research.

• Coffee officially makes your life longer - but only if you drink it this certain way.

TECH TOOL

Still planning lessons at midnight?

If your weekends feel like extended school nights, you’re not alone.

Many teachers spend hours searching the web, curating facts, assembling slides, and building activities - often on their own time. It's stressful, repetitive, and let's be real: you should be relaxing, not lesson prepping at 11 pm.

The Solution: Chalkie AI

Chalkie is an AI-powered lesson creator designed specifically for educators - from kindergarten to college levels. 

It can generate a full lesson in under 30 seconds: pick your topic, grade level, and curriculum, and it drafts slides with objectives, vocabulary, images, even video suggestions.

Plus, Chalkie automatically adds ready-to-use activities tailored to your lesson theme, with almost everything being fully editable and exportable to Google Slides, PowerPoint, or PDF.

In Your Classroom:

Let’s be clear - no one’s recommending you use Chalkie to teach every lesson without even looking at it. 

Like any tool, it works best with your personal touch. But if you’re starting from scratch (because yes, sometimes no one hands you materials), then this is a solid launch point. 

Strategies

• Last-minute backup: When you need a quick lesson due to tech failure or sub plan, let Chalkie generate one in 30 seconds flat.

• Build units efficiently: Create multiple lesson ideas in one go using their “lesson series” feature—ideal for term-long teaching.

• Share with colleagues: Export a polished slide deck or PDF as a template for new team members - or copy it for your own future rubric enhancements.

Chalkie isn’t here to replace your expertise - it’s here to support it. 

Your first 10 lessons are free, and after that you’re looking at $5.99 USD/month for premium options. 

If work-life balance matters at all (and we'll assume it does), this tool demands a spot in your teacher toolkit. Because some nights, your bed should get your love before your lesson planner does.

BRAINY BITS

Why is burnout seeping up the pipeline?

We all know K-12 teachers have been running on empty, but a new study shows that even those who train them - our university teacher educators - are experiencing high burnout and just pushing through anyway.

The Study: Measuring Burnout in Teacher Educators

Across Ireland and the UK, 154 higher-ed teacher trainers completed the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (personal, work-related, and student-related scales) and answered open-ended questions; some then joined follow-up interviews. 

Researchers quantified how worn out these educators feel and unearthed why they keep pushing despite the strain.

The Results:

The study revealed that 65% of teacher educators experienced moderate-to-high levels of personal burnout, and 52% reported similar levels of work-related fatigue, while student-related burnout remained comparatively low. 

Interviews and open-ended responses brought these numbers to life: many trainers confessed they simply “plough on,” sacrificing sleep, breaks, and self-care to keep up (sound familiar?). 

A recurring values clash emerged, with university bureaucracy often at odds with their teaching-first ethos. An “always-on” culture didn’t help, as emails and administrative tasks spilled into evenings and weekends.

In Your Classroom:

If those who prepare new teachers are burning out, the same forces - overload, blurred boundaries, constant change - are hard-wiring stress into every level of education. 

K-12 teachers feel it first in overcrowded classrooms and endless paperwork; now, their trainers are feeling it too. 

This “burnout trickle” threatens the whole system.

Whether you’re leading a homeroom or a lecture hall, these findings ring true: unchecked workload and blurred boundaries spark burnout. This summer, commit to habits that protect both personal well-being and professional effectiveness:

Strategies

• Set hard stops: Define email-free hours-and actually stick to them.

• Build peer support: Schedule regular check-ins with colleagues to share burdens, brainstorm solutions, and remind each other you’re not alone.

• Block off “me time”: Treat rest, exercise, and hobbies as nonnegotiable appointments.

• Model balance: Show students (of any age) that healthy boundaries and self-care are integral to sustained learning and teaching.

Burnout at the top signals a system under strain. 

By reclaiming balance and advocating for supportive cultures at every level, we can break the burnout cycle and ensure both teachers and their trainers have the energy and joy to do what they came to do: inspire learning.

REFERENCES

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

Tech Talk:

Chalkie (2025). Lessons in seconds.  Retrieved from https://chalkie.ai/

Brainy Bits:

Fitzsimons, S., and Smith, D. (2025). “‘just plough on and pretend it’s not happening’: Understanding burnout in teacher educators in Ireland and the United Kingdom.” International Journal of Educational Research Open, vol. 9, Dec. 2025, p. 100491, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2025.100491.