Vano Shlamov / AFP - Getty Images

Children playing near a Soviet-era Yakovlev Yak-42 plane which has been turned into their kindergarten, in the Georgian city of Rustavi on October 29, 2012.

Vano Shlamov / AFP - Getty Images

Vano Shlamov / AFP - Getty Images

Agence France Presse reports — A headteacher in the Georgian city of Rustavi has found an unusual way to get children's early education off the ground -- by transforming an airplane into a kindergarten.

Gari Chapidze bought the old but fully functional Yakovlev Yak-42 from Georgian Airways and refurbished its interior with educational equipment, games and toys but left the cockpit instruments intact so they could be used as play tools.

"The idea was to create a kindergarten where children go with joy," Chapidze said. Read the full story.

David Mdzinarishvili / Reuters

Previously on PhotoBlog: What's it like to live in a retired Boeing 727?

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Bullit Marquez / AP

School children use an inflated tire tube to cross a river to go to a public school in Rizal province east of Manila, Philippines, on Oct. 12, 2012.

They don't have a bus, or even a bridge. Filipino elementary school students have to use an inflated tire tube to cross a river on their way to school in a remote village in Rizal province, east of the capital Manila.

Dennis M. Sabangan / EPA

The students have to walk for at least an hour a day to get to and from school, and are sometimes forced to skip classes or take shelter at relatives' homes if the river is swollen due to heavy rains. The community has been petitioning the local government to put up a suspension bridge in order to make the crossing easier, faster and safer.

Previously on PhotoBlog: Indonesian children make perilous journey over collapsed bridge

Access to education is a problem in the Philippines, especially in rural areas, but enrollment rates remain relatively high. According to UNICEF, 85% of Filipino children are enrolled in elementary school, though only 62 percent finish high school. 

-- The Associated Press and The European Pressphoto Agency contributed to this report

Dennis M. Sabangan / EPA

Dennis M. Sabangan / EPA

Dennis M. Sabangan / EPA

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M. Spencer Green / AP

Students gather outside Benjamin E. Mays Academy for the first day of school on Sept. 19, after Chicago teachers voted to suspend their first strike in 25 years. Union delegates voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to suspend the walkout after discussing a proposed contract settlement with the nation's third largest school district.

More than 350,000 Chicago Public School students returned to class Wednesday after seven days off during the city's first teacher strike in 25 years.

"We feel very positive about moving forward," Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis said Tuesday after the union's nearly 800-member House of Delegates voted to end the strike. "We feel grateful that we have a united union, and that when a union moves together we have amazing things happen."

Teachers said they're excited to get back to work after voting on the tentative deal article-by-article. One point even received a standing ovation: the freedom for teachers to create their own lesson plans. Full story…

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Students at Frazier International Magnet School wait outside before the start of school on Sept. 19 in Chicago, Ill.

M. Spencer Green / AP

Leslie Sabbs-Kizer, right, walks her children Nkai Melton, 8, Akaira Melton, 7, and Khaymya Smith, 3, to Bond Elementary school in Chicago, for the first day of classes Wednesday morning, Sept. 19, after Chicago teachers voted to suspend their first strike in 25 years.

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Mayor Rahm Emanuel greets students as they arrive for school at Frazier International Magnet School on Sept. 19 in Chicago, Ill.

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Wei Jun / EPA

Teacher Wang Lijun plays basketball with Xiao Liang.

Xiao Liang (meaning Little Bright) is an orphan carrying HIV and is the only student in a specialized school in Baoshan village in northeast China's Liaoning province. Teacher Wang Lijun has ridden a bike about 20 kilometers each day to teach and take care of Xiao Liang since 2004, when the boy was turned down by the public school in the village for fear of the disease. A room offered by the village committee has been his classroom for the past eight years.

Wei Jun / EPA

Wang Lijun instructs Xiao Liang.

Wei Jun / EPA

Wang Lijun takes Xiao Liang home on his bike after school hours.

Wei Jun / EPA

Teacher Wang Lijun, left, lowers the national flag as as Xiao Liang salutes.

Erik M. Lunsford / St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP

Senior Sara Marshall hugs Barbara Behlmann during lunch on Thursday, May 10, 2012, at Hazelwood West High School in Hazelwood, Mo. Behlmann is a homecoming queen, a cheerleader and clearly one of the most popular students at Hazelwood West High School in suburban St. Louis. She also has Down syndrome. But she was raised in a home where her parents never put limits on her, and she has taken that message to heart as she prepares to graduate Saturday.

Erik M. Lunsford / St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP

Senior Barbara Behlmann walks to class following lunch on Thursday.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch tells the story of student Barbara Behlmann, a popular graduating senior at Hazelwood West High who has Down Syndrome:

Early on, the Behlmanns decided they would teach their daughter to do more than just survive.

"We never put limits on Barbara. We never said 'You can't do this,' or 'You're not able to do this,'" Karen Behlmann said. "It was whatever she wanted to do, then we were going to do it — whatever it took."

Speech and language therapies, at day care, school and home were constant throughout the rest of her childhood, they say. Chatter with a sister, another girl the Behlmanns adopted, helped too.

Along the way, Barbara's personality became clear — a happy, outgoing girl with no fear.

That's how her fellow cheerleaders at Hazelwood West describe her.

Read more...

Erik M. Lunsford / AP

Teacher Bridget Hanna admires Barbara Behlmann's thank you card to her job training employer at Hazelwood West High School.

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Baz Ratner / Reuters

A relative of seven-year-old Miriam Monsonego (bottom center) mourns during the joint funeral service in Jerusalem on March 21, 2012 for her daughter and the other three victims of Monday's shooting in Toulouse, France.

A joint funeral service is being held in Israel for the victims of Monday's shooting at a Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse.

The bodies of 30-year-old Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his sons Arieh, 5, and Gabriel, 4, and seven-year-old Myriam Monsonego arrived at Ben Gurion international airport ahead of a burial service in Jerusalem. 

The four were gunned down on Monday in the deadliest school shooting France has ever known and the bloodiest attack on Jewish targets in decades.

A suspect wanted in connection with the attack wounded three police officers in a shootout at a house in Toulouse early Wednesday. Click here for further updates and get the very latest at BreakingNews.com.

-- The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Ahmad Gharabli / AFP - Getty Images

An Israeli Zaka volunteer stands next to the bodies of victims of the shooting in a morgue before their funeral in Jerusalem on March 21, 2012.

Oded Balilty / AP

Members of ZAKA open the coffins of the Toulouse shooting victims as they prepare the bodies for burial at a morgue in Jerusalem on March. 21, 2012.

 Previously on PhotoBlog:

• Silence across France honors victims of attack on Jewish school
• Thousands march in Paris to remember school shooting victims
• Four killed in shooting outside Toulouse school

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Eric Cabanis / AFP - Getty Images

Local representatives observe a minute of silence at the courtyard of the City Hall of Toulouse, southwestern France, on March 20, 2012, one day after a shooting at a Jewish school in the city.

Schools across France observed a minute of silence at 11 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) Tuesday in memory of three children and a rabbi who were shot dead at a Jewish school in the city of Toulouse on Monday.

• Thousands march in Paris to remember school shooting victims

Read more about the hunt for the gunman, who may have filmed the attack according to information released by the country's interior minister. 

Charles Platiau / Reuters

A teacher comforts a child as they observe a minute of silence at a Jewish school in Paris on March 20, 2012 to pay tribute to the four victims killed by a gunman at a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday.

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Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP - Getty Images

People march through the streets of Paris on March 19 after the today's shooting of the Ozar Hatorah Jewish School in the southwestern city of Toulouse. Three children and a teacher were killed and a teenage boy was seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire this morning.

Thomas Coex / AFP - Getty Images

People march through the streets of Paris on March 19 after the Ozar Hatorah Hebrew school shooting, where four people lost their lives.

Eric Cabanis / AFP - Getty Images

Earlier today: Policemen work the scene near the Ozar Hatorah Hebrew school where four people were killed by a gunman.

Thousands of Parisians held a silent march through the streets of Paris to honor the three children and a rabbi who were shot dead by a gunman at Ozar Hatorah Hebrew school in Toulouse, France today.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said the bullets from one of the two guns used match those in earlier attacks that killed three French soldiers.

Some 120 investigators were working on a manhunt for the killer and had already identified the license plate of the motorbike used in today's attack, police sources said.

French media said that security was being tightened at all Jewish schools in the country.

--Msnbc.com sources contributed to this blog post.

Related link:

• Four shot dead at Jewish school in France; gun used in earlier attacks

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Manu Blondeau / AP

A student, second from left, is flanked by an unidentified woman and police officers as they leave a Jewish school after a gunman opened fire in Toulouse, southwestern France, on March 19, 2012.

Bruno Martin / AP

Police officers gather at the site of a shooting in Toulouse on March 19, 2012. A father and his two sons were among four people who died when a gunman opened fire in front of a Jewish school, the Toulouse prosecutor said Monday.

Msnbc.com staff, NBC News and news services report — A man opened fire outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, southwestern France, Monday, killing at least four people, including three children, officials said.

A rabbi at the school, identified as Rahamim Sabag, told Israel's channel two television that the dead were a 30-year old rabbi who taught at the school, the rabbi's five-year-old son and two eight-year old children, one of them the daughter of the school's principal, Reuters reported.

Click here for the latest updates.

Manu Blondeau / AP

School children and their parents leave a Jewish school after a gunman opened fire in Toulouse on March 19, 2012.

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Michael Conroy / AP

Investigators look over the scene of a fatal school bus crash on the southeast side of Indianapolis, Monday, March 12. The driver and one student were killed and two other critically injured.

Bill Mccleery / The Indianapolis Star

At least one person died March 12, 2012 in a school bus accident on the southeast side of Indianapolis.The accident occurred in the 900 block of South Emerson Avenue near English Avenue.

By msnbc.com news services

A bus driver and a student were killed Monday morning when a school bus crashed into a bridge outside of Indianapolis, NBC affiliate WTHR reports.

Ten other students were injured after the bus struck a bridge support beam on the city's east side, officials said. Two of the injured students are listed in critical condition.

 For more on the story click here.

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Alex Brandon / AP

Students from Archbishop Prendergast High School react on Friday after it is announced that they will merge schools with Monsignor Bonner High School, and not be closed.

Alex Brandon / AP

Students from Archbishop Prendergast High School react after the announcement.

Alex Brandon / AP

Students from Archbishop Prendergast High School react before news is announced that they will merge schools with Monsignor Bonner High School, and not be closed, Friday, Feb. 24, 2012 in Drexel Hills, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Alex Brandon / AP

Students from Monsignor Bonner High School wait on Friday for an announcement about whether they will merge schools with Archbishop Prendergast High School, and not be closed.

NBC Philadelphia reports: Archbishop Charles Chaput made the announcement on Friday afternoon, saying the community support was substantial. He also pressed state lawmakers to do more - much more - to help.

In his message to lawmakers, Archbishop Chaput said, "we need expanded EITC (education-incentive tax credits) funds and opportunity scholarships to help our schools survive."  The Archbishop said that without that support, the fate of the schools would be right back to where they were a few weeks ago, when they were slated for closure.

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Darrin Phegley / The Gleaner via AP

Nathan Baird drops to his knee to crowd applause after playing the Star Wars theme song at the Holy Name Talent Show in Henderson, Ky on Feb. 1.

As the crowd at the Holy Name Talent Show in Henderson, Ky applauded, Nathan Baird dropped to his knee after playing the Star Wars theme song.

Thirty-seven acts from the school's student body performed for parents, teachers and family members as part of Catholic Schools Week.

Related links:

• TheGleaner.com: More images from the Holy Cross Talent Show