Summer has a funny way of changing the problems we notice. At home, it's the never-ending stream of family schedules, grocery runs, and group chats. At school, it's realizing just how many tiny interruptions quietly shape our days. 

This week, we found a Tech Tool that helps bring a little order to family life, while this week's Brainy Bit research find explores why some interruptions drain us far more than others.

Oh, and happy Canada Day for our Canadian teachers (today) and a happy Independence Day to our American teachers for later on this week.

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

🔉 But first, this week's sponsor is for teachers who are spending way too much time on admin.

AI Executive Assistant for Normies

Catch is a smart, proactive AI admin agent that handles your scheduling, inbox, emails, follow-ups, and day-to-day admin across Gmail, Outlook, Slack, WhatsApp, and phone.

No setup. No learning curve.

From swamped to sorted, instantly.

Try Catch Today for Free

And now, back to making you an even better teacher. ⬇️ 

TECH TOOL

The Family Group Chat, But Actually Useful

Summer hits and suddenly us teachers are home to witness the full, unfiltered chaos of family life: the mystery soccer practice nobody confirmed, the fridge that somehow has everything but dinner, and a group chat with 61 unread messages. Vacation is supposed to be less chaotic, right?

The Solution: FamilyWall

FamilyWall's free tier is genuinely solid: a color-coded shared calendar, collaborative shopping lists that work offline, to-do lists, private family messaging, and photo sharing.

One subscription covers the whole family, and it runs on phones, tablets, and any web browser — so yes, even the kid who "doesn't have data" can participate on WiFi.

Premium ($44.99/year, 30-day free trial) is where things get interesting: Google and Outlook calendar sync, a meal planner, budget tracker, real-time family location sharing, timetables, and 25GB of storage.

Is This For YOUR Classroom?

As a classroom tool, it doesn't really belong there; it's built for families, not students. And fair warning: without Premium, there's no Google Calendar sync, making the free tier feel isolated from your real life. 

Multiple users report sync glitches and disappearing events, which is genuinely frustrating when you're trusting it with the whole summer schedule. Test the trial hard before committing. As always, if you're planning to upload family photos or sensitive information, take a few minutes to review their privacy and security practices before diving in.

Strategies That Work:

1. Summer Command Centre: Drop every camp date, wedding, and road trip into the shared calendar so the whole family sees the same reality.

2. Chore Buy-In: Assign to-do lists and shopping runs to older kids so "I didn't know" stops being an acceptable answer.

3. Back-to-School Soft Launch: Load fall timetables and school schedules in August so the whole family adjusts before September hits like a freight train.

FamilyWall won't save your summer, but it'll stop the family group chat from trying to. 

🚀 Noteworthy News

BRAINY BIT

Every Interruption Is Not Created Equal

Picture your corporate c-suite asking to use the bathroom every 10 minutes while you deliver the presentation that will save the company. That's a Tuesday for us teachers and it's easy to imagine those interruptions affecting the quality of our lessons. 

TLDR: A workplace study of 492 office workers found that the average person fields 25 interruptions per workday, and it's not the sheer number that burns people out but the type, the source, and the content. 

The Study: What’s the deal with interruptions?

Researchers had 492 full-time office employees log every single interruption across one full workday, noting whether it arrived by email, text, phone, or face-to-face, who sent it, and what it contained. 

Participants completed burnout surveys before and after the day. Statistical models then tested what actually predicted end-of-day exhaustion.

Nearly half of all interruptions came by email alone, averaging 12 per day, with phone calls and texts making up most of the rest.

The Results:

Emails and phone calls predicted burnout through perceived overload; texts and face-to-face chats did not, likely because those feel more natural and manageable. 

The source mattered too: supervisor interruptions made up just 11% of the day (think of these as your admin) but were as draining as colleague interruptions at 25%. Interruptions carrying new tasks, irrelevant info, or someone else's questions were the worst offenders for perceived overload. 

In YOUR Classroom:

If office workers hit their wall at 25 interruptions a day, us teachers are lapping them before second period, which makes knowing which interruptions drain us most worth paying attention to. 

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

Strategies That Work:

1. Batch your email: checking twice daily removes the constant drip that quietly builds overload.

2. Park the questions: a classroom sticky-note parking lot lets students queue questions instead of interrupting mid-thought.

3. Name the drain: after a rough lesson, ask whether it was volume or content of interruptions that hit hardest.

If quality of interruptions matters more than quantity, then teaching students how to interrupt well, timing, relevance, brevity, is a legitimate classroom skill that protects everyone's focus, including theirs. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

We would LOVE to hear from you!

Reply to this email, or send us a message on Instagram! We’re here to walk with you in these crazy times!

Part of what makes The PEN Weekly community so special is the fact that our readers are teachers from around the world! We’re not going to lie, we think that’s pretty darn cool!

We’ll see you again on Monday 🍎

Share this newsletter!

Do you know someone who would appreciate reading the PEN? Share this newsletter with them! Our goal is to reach as many teachers as possible, and to build a community of teachers supporting teachers.