Artificial intelligence keeps getting smarter. Our students already know how the algorithms shaping their lives work. 

Neither of those facts is the real story anymore. 

This week's Tech Tool explores how one of the major AI players is making a (free) play for teachers while this week's Brainy Bit research find asks a much bigger question: if students already understand the technology influencing them, what should we be teaching next?

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

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

TECH TOOL

Claude Finally Went to School

Most AI tools ask teachers to explain teaching first. Anthropic just flipped that idea around and built one that already speaks classroom. 

But unlike what ChatGPT Work did last week, Anthropic made it free, exclusively for teachers.

The Solution: Claude for Teachers

While most AI tools start with a blank prompt box, Claude for Teachers starts much closer to the finish line.

Instead of asking you to explain your curriculum, Claude can pull from state standards, government-trusted instructional resources, and learning progressions to help build lessons that are actually classroom-ready. It also remembers your teaching style over time, so you spend less time rewriting prompts and more time refining ideas.

For example, instead of asking:

"Help me teach fractions."

You can ask:

"Build a Grade 5 fractions lesson with three differentiated activities, one accommodation for students with dyscalculia, exit tickets, and a parent summary written at a Grade 6 reading level."

Or:

"My class bombed yesterday's ecosystem quiz. Analyze these results, identify the biggest misconceptions, and redesign tomorrow's lesson to fix them."

Perhaps the biggest change is automation and integration with other classroom tools that you’re already using, such as Canva Education, Drift, and Magic School (among many others). 

Claude for Teachers can complete recurring jobs—reviewing exit tickets every afternoon, summarizing observations from student conferences, or preparing tomorrow's bellringer—without you having to remember to ask each time. 

It feels less like opening another chatbot and more like having a planning partner waiting in the staff room.

Is This For YOUR Classroom?

Just like how Canva changed the game by making its education product free for teachers, the biggest take away today is that Claude made all of these premium features free for us teachers as well.

The catch? As of today, it's only available to verified U.S. K–12 educators. Still, this feels like a glimpse of where classroom AI might be heading; less chatbot/teacher-replacement, and more of a teaching partner. 

Strategies That Work:

1. Differentiate Without Starting Over: Ask Claude to build three versions of the same lesson - below grade level, on grade level, and extension - instead of rewriting everything yourself; and then automate it to do this with every worksheet it helps you create.

2. Turn Assessment Into Tomorrow's Lesson: Upload quiz or exit ticket results and ask Claude to identify patterns, misconceptions, and small-group interventions before students walk back into your room.

3. Build Your Own Teaching Playbook: Save prompts that reflect how you teach ("always include retrieval practice," "keep directions under 75 words," "use inquiry first"). Claude becomes more consistent because you're no longer reinventing your prompts every week.

AI doesn't need to replace teachers to change education.

If it can give us back more time for the conversations, feedback, and relationships that matter most (and do so for free), that's a future worth paying attention to.

Teacher Survey

Note: if you already answered on Monday, no need to repeat; keep on scrolling to the next section. ⬇️ 

This takes one tap and quietly changes everything that shows up here next. The advice that helps a primary classroom is not the advice that helps a Grade 12 one, and this newsletter would rather stop guessing. Pick your grade band below and let the next issue meet you where you actually teach!

BRAINY BIT

Your Students Already Know the Algorithm

Quick question: If your students can already explain how TikTok's algorithm works, then what exactly should digital literacy teach next? 

TLDR: In classroom workshops with 87 teenagers, researchers found that students already understood how social media algorithms track watch time, likes, shares, and clicks. The problem? Knowing how the machine works did not stop them from getting stuck inside it.

The Study: Teen perceptions vs. Algorithms

Researchers worked with 87 students across five Irish secondary schools. Instead of handing out another survey destined to become a sad spreadsheet, they ran two-hour classroom workshops built around six realistic social media scenarios.

Students reflected alone, discussed ideas in small groups, and shared responses on colorful sticky notes. Researchers then studied the conversations for common themes about personalized feeds, harmful content, screen time, and platform design.

The Big Takeaway:

These teenagers were not clueless users. Many described deliberately “training” their feeds through watch time, likes, shares, and quick scrolling. They even understood the business model: more scrolling means more data, more ads, and more money.

Yet many still described losing time, doomscrolling, encountering disturbing content, and feeling trapped in loops they understood perfectly well.

In other words, knowing how an algorithm works is not the same as being immune to it.

In YOUR Classroom:

Digital literacy may no longer mean explaining what an algorithm is; it may mean helping students notice when one is quietly steering their choices. 

Think of your own algorithms - is your Explore page just an echo chamber of what you already believe? Or is quietly trying to challenge what you think you know? Now imagine you’re 15 years old trying to analyze the same question.

Here’s how these results can impact your classroom (and summer) approach this week:

Strategies That Work:

1. Treat feeds like persuasive texts. Ask what the platform wants students to think, feel, click, or keep watching.

2. Audit the algorithm. Have students identify three recommendations their feed got right—and three that wildly missed.

3. Teach the exit signal. Help students name the moment useful scrolling becomes automatic scrolling.

For years we've taught students how algorithms work. This study suggests the next generation of digital literacy is teaching them how not to let those algorithms work on them. 

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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