2+ week, 4+ day ago (395+ words) The Holidays Are Here! 60 Advent Calendars to Help You Countdown in Style When 5th grade math teacher Courtney White tells people that her school operates on a four-day week schedule, they tend to respond with shock: "Wait, do you work in Narnia?" No, her school doesn't exist in a magical fictional world. It's simply a small school district in Texas that holds classes every Tuesday through Thursday. White posted a casual TikTok video about her school schedule, and it earned tons of views and tons of questions, prompting her to create three follow-up videos to address them all. "I was confused on why they're going viral," she tells TODAY.com. "Because to me, it was just normal." Even with the shortened weekly schedule, the total number of school days per year doesn't decrease by much: it changed from 180 days to 172 days....

3+ week, 1+ day ago (336+ words) TODAY's All-Star Thanksgiving: 19 Chefs Share Recipes and Tips for 10th Anniversary Teenagers have long been saddled with a reputation for apathy and self-absorption, but a reel from a small Ohio school district might make you rethink that tired narrative. In the clip, a simple microphone placed in the middle of a bustling school hallway becomes an invitation for joy: one by one, students step up to share something good that's happened to them. The result is a tender, unscripted portrait of optimism, proof that the next generation might just be more hopeful, kind and grounded than we give them credit for. "I woke up at a good time today for school, so I didn't miss the bus," one boy said shyly, while wiping his hands on his pants. "Someone told me that my hair looked really pretty today," another said, twisting…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (532+ words) Editor-Approved Holiday Hosting Picks: Flameless Taper Candles, Pre-Lit Trees and More " from $5 "I teach refugees [English] and every week this student brings in food for the whole class," Shrea Kumar, a volunteer teacher at Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS) in Ohio, captioned her now-viral TikTok video. That student is a 69-year-old Syrian refugee named Hazaa Alabdullah. The video shows Alabdullah handing out sandwiches, chips, vegetables and more to other students in his class on separate occasions. In comments sections, viewers praise Alabdullah for his generosity. "The biggest hearts," wrote one person. "People from other countries understand the meaning of community." "Immigrants are the most American people you will ever meet," wrote another. "Because they still believe in the original dream." "Learning English but fluent in community "," wrote one more. "I've been crying over this video for about five minutes…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (350+ words) Steals & Deals: Up to To 86% Off Leather Tote Bags, Jewelry, More Gifts For Her After years of watching her students struggle with once-basic skills, from reading an analog clock to tying their shoelaces, a third grade teacher has taken her concerns public. In a TikTok video, the educator, who goes by @mommy_n_zachy on social media, lays out a list of skills she says kids routinely lack, including the ability to recite their home address, count coins, or follow simple multi-step directions. Some can't write in cursive, she notes; others do not know their parents' names or phone numbers. Many, she adds, are unable to look up words in a dictionary or recall the year they were born. What struck her most, she said, was not the gaps themselves but the confidence with which children now shrug them off. She attributes the…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago (344+ words) Steals & Deals: Up To 90% Off Watches, Wireless Headphones, More Gifts For Him A preschool art teacher is telling preschool parents a shocking secret: their kids can't stop bragging about them. "They sat there at their little table with their little hands and their little crayons, and they said, "I'm making this for my Mommy,'" Katz shared about observing students in class. "You are loved. And I really thought someone needed to tell you that." The video has struck a chord with parents " especially moms " who truly did need to hear that message. The video has collected over 2 million views in less than two weeks. Just over two years ago, Katz made a deliberate move from teaching art to older children down to the preschool level. "I just felt that so many kids by the time they get to second grade…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (332+ words) The Holidays Are Here! 60 Advent Calendars to Help You Countdown in Style In a week dominated by grim headlines, a 9-year-old girl from Ontario, Canada managed to unleash a ripple effect of pure delight across the internet, all with a vocabulary quiz. "My daughter's spelling test" look at 13," Tara Heshka, 45, wrote on Threads. Elliot, a fourth grader with a sharp mind, a sharper sense of humor, and a habit of doodling her way through assignments, had put an imaginative twist on the word "echo." Instead of simply writing it once, as instructed, she let the word bounce and repeat across the page "eight times " each rendition shrinking slightly, until the final "echo" drifted off the edge of the paper like a sound fading into the distance. Her mother wasn't the least bit surprised. "Elliot just thinks differently," Heshka tells TODAY....

2+ week, 5+ day ago (386+ words) TODAY's All-Star Thanksgiving: 19 Chefs Share Recipes and Tips for 10th Anniversary Every back-to-school season brings the same checklist: pencils, notebooks, glue sticks, tissues. But when Iowa mom Megan Baird opened an email from her son's fourth-grade teacher this year, one addition to the supply list made her stop and smile. It was, she thought, downright brilliant. "She asked each child to bring a stick of deodorant to keep in their locker for after recess and gym class," Baird, 36, tells TODAY.com. "The building doesn't have central air conditioning, so it gets pretty hot those first few weeks. She said the deodorant goes a long way toward keeping everyone comfortable!" Tickled by the request, Baird pulled out her phone and recorded a TikTok, calling the teacher a "freaking genius," and saying her request "absolutely blew my mind." In the video, she imagines…...

4+ week, 3+ hour ago (1204+ words) Exclusive Deals On Viral BonBon Candies, PMD Beauty, More Holiday Gifts When Tosha Alexander was 17, her world was unraveling. Her father had died, and with her mother unable to keep their lives together, foster care became the next stop in her journey. Then her history teacher, Brea Kitts, did something extraordinary. Without hesitation, Kitts " who was a single mother " stepped in and took legal custody. She gave Alexander not just a roof over her head, but a home, a sense of safety, and a chance to finish high school with her friends. In Kitts's classroom, the impact is impossible to miss. Students arrive hungry. Some wear the same clothes day after day. Parents count the miles to the nearest food bank, weighing the cost of gas against the cost of groceries. Kitts keeps snacks and hygiene products in a small…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago (507+ words) Our SkinMedica Box Sold Out " But You Can Still Shop What's Inside Kim Kardashian gave her followers an update on her journey to becoming a lawyer. In a post on her Instagram story Nov. 8, Kardashian shared an update on her progress with her followers, including her bar exam results. The Skims founder, who stars in Ryan Murphy's new series "All's Fair," wrote in part, "Well'I'm not a lawyer yet, I just play a very well-dressed one on TV." "Six years into this law journey, and I'm still all in until I pass the bar," she continued. "No shortcuts, no giving up " just more studying and even more determination. Thank you so everyone who has supported and encouraged me along the way so far." She added, "Falling short isn't failure " it's fuel. I was so close to passing the exam and…...

4+ week, 1+ day ago (451+ words) Steals & Deals: Up to 78% Off Serving Trays, Bathroom Upgrades, More Holiday Home Essentials Recently, Gail Johnson, a former high school principal, woke up to find her phone buzzing with dozens of angry messages from parents. The uproar centered on what Johnson, 59, considered a routine opinion, hardly the stuff of outrage. Yet within hours, her post had gone viral, igniting a heated debate among moms and dads across the country. "It's 2025 and I actually have parents trying to defend pulling their child out of school for vacation," Johnson, who now works as a substitute teacher, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "I get a death. I get a granny is turning 100 and lives out of state. But to get a cheaper vacation " nope. I can't ever support that." "The reactions were unexpected to say the least," Johnson tells…...