Our students are swimming in information and most days, we’re just trying to help them keep their heads above water. Between breaking news, algorithm-fed opinions, and AI tools evolving faster than policy, it’s hard to know what actually deserves attention. 

This week’s issue looks at two small ways to bring a little more clarity into that chaos: one tool that makes following the news feel calmer and more intentional, and one massive data set that holds up a mirror to how teachers are really using AI right now.

You’re about to become an even better teacher in the next 6 minutes.

🚀 Noteworthy News

👉️ Eye-opening: Thinking is becoming optional — why AI may be rewiring how we reason.

👉️ Steal this line: One “magic phrase” that actually builds kids’ emotional intelligence.

👉️ Worrying: Teen social media ban is driving some young people to seek mental-health help.

TECH TOOL

Smarter News, Calmer Brains

Where students get their news keeps changing. TikTok. YouTube. Group chats. Screenshots of screenshots. It’s fast. It’s messy. And it’s increasingly hard to tell what’s reliable. If we want critical thinkers, we need better starting points.

The Solution: Syft

Syft is a free, browser-based app (currently in beta) that creates an AI-summarized daily news brief based on the topics and outlets you choose. Instead of long articles, you get clear takeaways. Instead of keyword guessing, Syft tries to understand your intent. Instead of fixed sources, it pulls globally from original outlets.

You can follow up to 10 channels at once (and swap them anytime), which is more than enough to build a thoughtful mix of perspectives.

Students (and teachers) can also simply ask any question and it will pull multiple news sources to help answer the question, updated in real time (critical thinking gold!).

Is This For YOUR Classroom?

Here’s the danger: Syft makes it easy to build an echo chamber. “I don’t like Outlet A, so I’ll only follow Outlet B” solves nothing. Used lazily, this tool can deepen bias instead of reduce it.

Strategies That Work:

1. Opposite Pairing: Require one source students disagree with.

2. Daily Brief Bellringer: Read one summary and discuss framing.

3. Compare & Contrast: Same story, two outlets, one conversation.

Syft doesn’t teach critical thinking. But it gives us a cleaner arena to practice it in a time where our students need as much practice as they can get.

BRAINY BIT

The AI Reality Check

Not “use more AI.” Not “use less AI.”

More like: here’s what’s actually happening - at least according to one of the giants in this space.

TLDR: Anthropic analyzed millions of anonymized AI conversations and found that teachers appear among the top careers using AI, but how teachers use it varies widely by subject and level. The takeaway isn’t a mandate. It’s a mirror.

The Study: Anthropic Economic Index

Anthropic examined real-world usage data from Claude (a main competitor to ChatGPT), mapping conversations to job categories using an automated classifier plus human validation. Each interaction was tagged by occupation and task type (answering questions, drafting, coding, planning, etc.).

You can explore the link above from the report - a searchable dataset showing how AI is used across jobs, countries, and regions. Anthropic notes the data is useful but imperfect and should be interpreted carefully.

The Results:

Technology roles still dominate overall usage. But the first teaching role (post-secondary English) appears in the top 10 occupations.

The report shows that primary, secondary, and post-secondary educators use AI in different ways, and there’s a small but growing rise in agentic use (AI acting across multiple steps), not just one-off questions.

In YOUR Classroom:

This data doesn’t tell us what to do, but it does tell us teachers that we’re not alone in experimenting.

Here’s how this study might impact your classroom approach to AI this week:

Strategies That Work:

1. Explore the mirror. Use the public tool to search “teacher” and see patterns. Secondary teachers - have students look up their ‘dream job’ and see how AI is being used.

2. Name your purpose. Decide what AI supports versus replaces in your own teaching practice.

3. Protect human work. Relationships, judgment, and care stay human - especially in the classroom.

This isn’t about winning the AI race. It’s about asking better questions about the work we value and how new tools fit into it.

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 🍎

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