Summer gives us something teachers rarely get during the school year: space to notice things. 

Sometimes that means noticing our own habits and wellbeing. Other times, it means noticing patterns in our students that have quietly changed over the years. 

This week's Tech Tool explores a surprisingly effective way to rebuild healthy routines over the summer, while this week's Brainy Bit research find digs into why the empty chairs in our classrooms may no longer mean what they once did.

You're about to become an even better teacher in the next 4 minutes.

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BRAINY BIT

The Empty Chair Is Getting More Common

If you've noticed more empty chairs this year than you used to, you're not imagining it. A landmark study of over 513,000 kindergartners found that chronic absenteeism more than doubled after COVID, and the kids filling those empty chairs look very different than they used to. 

TLDR:Researchers compared kindergarten attendance records and developmental health scores from before and after COVID across 8 Canadian provinces and territories: absenteeism jumped from 17.7% to 41.3%, with post-COVID kids three times more likely to miss 14 or more days of school.

The Study: Chronic absenteeism and developmental vulnerability

Researchers at McMaster University analyzed Early Development Instrument (EDI) data collected from kindergarten teachers across 8 Canadian provinces and territories, comparing two large groups: 284,712 kids attending pre-COVID (2017-2020) and 228,447 attending post-COVID (2020-2023). 

Chronic absenteeism meant missing 14 or more school days. Teachers also rated each child across five developmental domains, producing an overall developmental vulnerability score.

The study asked three questions: did absenteeism rates change, did the profile of absent kids change, and did the link between absence and developmental risk change?

The Results:

Post-COVID kindergartners were three times more likely to be chronically absent than their pre-pandemic peers. 

Perhaps what’s even more interesting though is that before COVID, chronically absent kids had nearly twice the odds of being developmentally vulnerable. After COVID, that link weakened significantly, likely because the absent group now included more children whose parents could work from home. 

In YOUR Classroom:

The empty chair used to signal a struggling family; now it might signal a lifestyle shift, meaning the old assumptions about who needs support and why no longer apply. 

Here’s how these results can impact your classroom approach this week:

Strategies That Work:

1. Reach out early and without judgment: a warm check-in call after three absences beats a warning letter after fifteen.

2. Make return feel worth it: a small welcome-back ritual helps kids feel missed, not behind.

3. Track from September: catching a pattern in October is far more useful than reacting in March.

The data tells us absenteeism is no longer a simple signal, and our response to it needs to match that complexity. Noticing early, reaching out kindly, and making school worth showing up for is the new attendance strategy. 

🚀 Noteworthy News

TECH TOOL

Your Summer Glow-Up Starts With a Tiny Bird

Us teachers spend 10 months pouring into everyone else's cup. Summer arrives and suddenly nobody needs anything from us, which is both glorious and deeply disorienting. Turns out, we forgot to check in on ourselves.

The Solution: Finch

Finch is free, requires no account, and opens with one question: what do you want to name your bird? From there, you build small daily wellness goals: drink water, take three deep breaths, journal two sentences, track your mood. 

Complete them, and your bird earns energy to explore new places and unlock adventures. Backed by positive reinforcement, there are zero penalties for skipping a day.

The free version covers everything most users need. Finch Plus adds outfit customization, premium exercises, and extra micropets for a modest annual fee. It collects mood and habit data, so worth a privacy policy skim before diving in.

Plus, there’s also a shop for physical items (toys and merch) for kids (or adults) that prefer to work partially offline.

Is This For YOUR Classroom?

Finch is primarily a personal tool, but older students navigating anxiety or executive dysfunction may genuinely benefit. That said, it does collect wellness data, and some perfectionists may develop stress about "letting the bird down," which defeats the purpose. It is not therapy and should never be framed as one.

Strategies That Work:

1. Summer Reset Ritual: Spend 90 seconds each morning on a Finch check-in to rebuild the simple habits that ten months of teaching quietly eroded.

2. SEL Integration: Share Finch with high schoolers in September as a low-stakes emotional regulation starter before heavier SEL programming kicks in.

3. Accountability Pair-Up: Add a teacher friend using Finch's Friends feature and send each other affirmations all summer long, because we deserve that too.

Sometimes a tiny bird is enough of a reminder to take care of ourselves too. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

We would LOVE to hear from you!

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We’ll see you again on Monday 🍎

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