North Texas kindergarten teacher Sonja White picks up her classroom’s Tiffany blue “tattletale telephone” at the end of the school day and presses play. One student scorns her classmate for being too loud, while another confesses their sadness over a friend not sharing with them. A third is revealed to have stuck their tongue out at a classmate.
It’s just a normal day in Kinder, White explains to her social media followers. She has about a million of them.
In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we spoke with White, an educator demystifying the kind of magic that only happens in classrooms and making the everyday work of educators visible online. The kindergarten teacher documents her work life to followers across various social platforms: She showcases her classroom activities, offers teaching advice and hacks, and shows the prep work behind over-the-top class parties earned from good behavior.
She also shares the funny things her students say. Those typically come from a regular playback of the “Kinder Tattle Phone,” a system that allows the children to record messages about good and bad behavior they witness throughout the day without the comments taking up class time.
That’s one of many strategies White employs to wrangle her spirited 5- and 6-year-olds. Being a fun teacher doesn’t mean she’s a pushover. White often shares how she manages a classroom of eager, chatty little ones, many navigating rules and relationships for the first time outside of their family structures.
And her followers are along for the ride. They never see the children on camera, but connect with them by first name, voice, and countless anecdotes that leave subscribers feeling like internet aunts and uncles.
“ The public really loves my students,” White said. “ Before I ever had TikTok, I would get on Facebook and be like, ‘My class needs lunchboxes. You don’t have to give me money, here’s a link.’ And then I would get 30 lunchboxes. So it’s nice that the public will do extra things for them.”
Her videos are captivating—and not just because children are funny or that school is relatable for all. She’s charming, crafting content that feels like life updates from your best friend. Her words feel honest, and her storytelling style is alluring: Sometimes she whispers, while other times she smirks, furrows her brows, and drops her jaw as she tells you the best parts of the story.
And that’s why this is not the first news feature about the mother of five who started teaching in her 40s. White was named Teacher of the Year her very first year on the job, and has appeared on a popular daytime talk show about her inspired teaching style.
In a time when US teachers are increasingly leaving the classroom—and, in many ways, Texas has made it harder for them to stay—White’s palpable passion is a refreshing shake-up to the often gloomy education conversation.
Becoming the internet’s favorite teacher
Before teaching, White spent years working in human resources doing payroll. Ten years ago, she took a job as a secretary at her children’s school, allowing her the time to go back to school and complete her bachelor’s.
In 2020, like many during the pandemic, White started sharing videos online, though she wasn’t a teacher yet. When she took her first teaching job two years later—leading a first-grade class at the time—she began seeing other teachers sharing their journeys online and was inspired to make her own school-related content.
One viral video in 2023 really skyrocketed her platform. After finding out that her students had never been on a plane before, White took them on a mock trip to Mexico. She made plane tickets and passports, boarded the children onto a Southwest Airlines plane of rowed desks, and played a video of a flight simulation. When they landed, they used fake money to buy souvenirs while the classroom was turned into a Mexican restaurant, with food cooked by a parent.
“ I created content before that … but after Mexico is when I got a nice amount of followers,” White said.
Her TikTok video of the voyage has garnered five million views. CBS News got wind of White’s creativity and interviewed her and a few of her students on an evening segment.
The imaginative lesson worked—her students took the trip seriously, and it stimulated their curiosity about more countries. Southwest Airlines saw the newscast and invited her and the school’s entire first grade to their headquarters, where students got to go on a real plane.
Later, White was asked to be a guest on the “Jennifer Hudson Show,” and flew to Los Angeles for the segment. During the interview, White learned that Southwest planned to give her school $10,000.
The pros and cons of teaching and virality
As White’s social media fame grew, so did the perks, which she makes sure to share with not only her colleagues, but other teachers and parents across the country as well.
She regularly posts unboxing videos that feature gifts or “PR” from small businesses, big brands, and individuals alike. Sometimes it’s a water bottle or gift cards; other times it’s a load of makeup and beauty supplies or a techy home and kitchen item. Target has even given classroom supplies to her whole school.
Sharing her life online hasn’t come without criticism from viewers. White receives regular comments, including from her own co-workers, about how strict she is about managing her classroom. But White says her teaching style works for her.
“ I feel like I’ve been a very firm parent and that helps in the classroom. It’s just there’s no way for us to have fun and do extra things with bad behavior, like they just don’t go hand in hand,” she said. “ And the internet hates that. They inbox me.”
As someone who started teaching later in life after getting married and having kids (her children range in age from 17 to 30), White knows her perspective is different from others who enter the field as young adults.
“I’m a different generation, too. A lot of teachers are in their twenties … and a lot of teachers don’t have children,” she said. “My expectations of (my students) are just high, but they really rise” to them.
As for teaching in general, even without daily tests and homework, White says it’s no walk in the park.
“ Teaching is the hardest job I’ve ever had,” she said, adding “and it requires more than any other job I’ve had.”
White arrives at school around 6:45 a.m. to prepare for the day. When it’s over, she has a long, traffic-ladened drive home—it is DFW, after all. On the day of this interview, she made it home around 5 p.m. Then she starts her second job as an influencer.
As with nearly all public school teaching roles in the US, White thinks the pay could and should be better. White said she knows teachers who depend on public assistance.
“ You have a bachelor’s degree, you’re in the classroom making a difference every day, but you can’t make it out here,” she said.
While a kindergarten teacher might seem immune from the pressure of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) testing, White said that they have to administer their own tests to show the state they are hitting markers needed to be successful when their students start STAAR testing in the third grade.
When asked what she wanted lawmakers to know about being a teacher in Texas, White said she wished they were required to actually spend time in a school. “You had to be a teacher, you had to be a principal, you had to be in the educational realm (in) some type of way before you make any laws that affect us.”
But this educator has figured how to balance the challenges with all the great parts of the role. She said she’s lucky to have a supportive principal that understands the importance of education being visible on social media.
And her students’ parents like it, too. White provides a rare perspective into what goes into every elaborate class breakfast or thorough lesson plan, and they get to hear the funny musings of their children when they’re not around.
At 49, and with her last child leaving for college in the fall, White admits she’s strongly considering what’s next for her. While she sees a day in the future when she’ll want to reclaim more of her time, she’s still excited to facilitate positive classroom experiences—for students and for teachers.
And as for her life on social media, she said it’s time-consuming enough that her husband has gotten involved in helping to post videos after coming home from his own full-time job. White depicts massive package hauls from her post office box, all things that have to be filmed, edited and dispersed in giveaways.
Being that teacher is a huge undertaking, but White says, for now, the benefits are worth the sacrifice.
“ I think my husband and I have lost some privacy, you know, when we go to dinner or anywhere,” she said. “But I’m very grateful to my followers, so I always say ‘hi’ and if they want to take a picture, I’ll take a picture. It’s not a big deal to me, but them following me is a big deal, ’cause it provides so much for my classroom.”
