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:

• Teachers and parents are getting sick of all the tech - but should we be?

• The most cited research papers of all time have officially been revealed.

• Teen use of cannabis has skyrocketed - time to worry?

BRAINY BITS

Should we stop teaching kids to write by hand?

A new May 2025 study says not so fast. 

Researchers compared how different kinds of writing practice impacted letter and word learning in kids.

The Study: Handwriting vs. Typing in Early Literacy

Fifty young children were taught unfamiliar letters from two different alphabets over three days using different methods:

• Hand-copying

• Tracing

• Typing with one consistent font

• Typing with fonts that changed every time

After just a few training sessions, researchers tested letter naming, writing accuracy, and word construction using the newly learned letters (borrowed from unfamiliar Georgian and Armenian scripts).

The Results

The kids who learned by handwriting performed significantly better on all post-tests. 

They remembered letter shapes more clearly, named them more accurately, and constructed words more successfully. Why? 

The graphomotor hypothesis: When we move our hands to form letters, our brains create richer memory traces by linking movement with visual shape.

In Your Classroom:

With tablets, Chromebooks, and AI tools now commonplace - even in the youngest grades - it’s tempting to skip handwriting altogether.

But this research suggests we lose something important when we do.

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

Strategies

• Don’t ditch the pencils too soon: Handwriting may look old-school, but it wires brains differently - and better - for reading.

• Movement helps memory: When kids draw letters, they aren’t just copying, they’re encoding and making neural connections.

• Mix tools strategically: Devices are great, but in early literacy, consider keeping keyboards out of the core lesson flow.

Typing may be the future, but handwriting still builds the foundation.

And as many schools say goodbye to cursive writing, research like this shows us that handwriting may still deserve a spot in our lesson plans.

TECH TOOL

No more games - finally some real language practice.

Flashy interfaces, streaks, and cartoon owls are fun at first, but often slow down.

What’s missing is authenticity: real-world listening, conversational nuance, and confidence in actual speech - not just tapping the right tile.

The Solution:  Little Language Lessons by Google Labs

Little Language Lessons (LLL) include a trio of AI-powered mini apps designed to make language learning more practical and less gimmicky. 

The three apps available are:

• Tiny Lesson: Quick chats built around real-life scenarios, helping students learn vocabulary and phrases they can actually use.

• Slang Hang: Dives into informal language, teaching the kinds of phrases students won’t find in a textbook but will hear in real conversation.

• Word Cam: Uses your device’s camera to scan objects and return language practice prompts based on what it sees.

Together, these tools make language learning feel more alive and aligned with how students actually use and encounter language in the real world.

In Your Classroom:

With Google Lab’s new trio, you don’t get points or streaks - you get practical speaking experience in under five minutes (or as long as you want).

Here’s how you can get started with Little Language Lessons this week:

Strategies

• Quick practice: Start class with a mini LLL session to set the tone, reinforce pronunciation, and gets students thinking in the target language first.

• Safe homework: Assign a daily or weekly LLL scenario for independent practice for short bursts of real-world exposure.

• Differentiate: Since each scenario is conversational and intuitive, beginners and advanced students alike can practice at their level. 

Little Language Lessons might be the shift you and your students need. 

It’s free, browser-based, and available in over 20 languages (for now).

Since Google is calling this an ‘experiment’ however, it can be slightly buggy, but not enough to deter learners (at least in our experience).

It’s real-world communication, stripped of the gimmicks, and delivered in smart, short bursts that fit your classroom flow. No dancing owls. Just practical language learning that sticks.

REFERENCES

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

Tech Talk:

Google Labs Experiment. (2025). Little Language Lessons. Retrieved from https://labs.google/lll/en

Brainy Bits:

Ibaibarriaga, G., Acha, J., & Perea, M. (2025). The impact of handwriting and typing practice in children’s letter and word learning: Implications for literacy development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 253, 106195. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106195