♪♪ ♪♪ >> Ferroni: Today, I want them to understand what it was like or get a taste of what it was like for, say, Native Americans or various groups of people who come to America who are forced to conform to American ideals or American norms.

By next September, you should be wearing uniforms.

>> Young woman: No!

I'm moving.

What?

>> Macht: We're talking.

>> Masud: We feel that right now there's a big sense of otherness, whether it's in the world or, you know, day-to-day life.

And we want our kids to not only focus on the other, but the other us.

Meaning, yes, they're other, they're different, but they're also very much like us.

>> Silverman: Social media has allowed anybody with a phone access to the Internet to be a reporter.

>> Stebbins: A lot of us agree that social media is our source for news.

But when we ask ourselves how credible is it, we often question its credibility.

>> Becker: They needed to come up with a way to get money.

We try to create experiences that will help students connect to things that happened prior to them.

I have for you cups with jelly beans in them.

So the idea was to connect how the colonists didn't have a say in the taxing.

>> Julia: Jelly beans.

♪♪ >> Beatty: Welcome back.

It's time for another episode of "Classroom Close-Up, New Jersey," featuring innovative programs in our public schools.

This week we'll highlight creative social studies projects designed to engage young learners.

We'll begin in Union with a focus on assimilation.

♪♪ >> Ferroni: Experience is the best way to learn.

So I always try to put them in situations and simulations to kind of teach them through experience.

Last year, 50 schools in 25 states were surveyed.

25 schools had enforced dress codes, while 25 schools had no dress code.

Today, I want them to understand what it was like or get a taste of what it was like for, say, Native Americans or various groups of people who come to America who are forced to conform to American ideals or American norms.

The result proved that students at those schools and school uniform guidelines outperformed schools with no dress code and no specific guidelines.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to convince them that our school's implementing a new dress code with school uniforms, then gonna force them to not only affect how they dress, but affect how they talk, how they wear their hair, and how they wear other physical appearance.

In the schools with the dress codes, students average a grade of 83%.

In schools with no dress code, students averaged a grade of 75%.

So grades actually were better in schools that had obviously had some form of structure.

I'm basically going to convince them that our school is going to control how they look and how they dress.

I want to know how they would feel when their culture is being stripped from them and their identity and individuality is being stripped from them, the same way that we did to immigrants, to African-Americans, to Native Americans, through assimilation.

The second part of certain guidelines -- girls must have their hair tied back for safety reasons while boys can't have hair that extends past their ears.

>> Young woman: I feel like that's one thing you really can't dictate.

'Cause it's, like, it's yours.

Like, what are you gonna do with it?

You really can't, like, force anyone to do something with their hair that they really don't want to.

>> Young woman #2: If you're at a fast food restaurant... >> Young woman #3: Okay, makes sense.

You won't have to wear it.

>> Young woman #2: ...you have to put your hair up.

>> Young woman #3: I don't think they're gonna tell you -- >> Young woman #4: They can have guidelines, but they can't exactly -- Like, everyone's hair is different.

>> Young woman #2: There's a difference between forcing you to do something and having guidelines.

>> Ferroni: I want the comments, but I want you to get through all of it so you can process everything.

Students do not have any visible tattoos, piercings, or wear makeup.

Words -- students cannot speak using any slang or profanity while in school.

Contacts -- students cannot engage in any physical contact with other students outside of a sport.

Yes?

>> Young woman #4: We know, like, how to act in certain situations.

When I'm in school or I'm talking to my grandma, or, like, when I'm in like a professional setting or I'm going to a college, I know how to present myself in a professional way.

>> Ferroni: So you don't need school to dictate that.

>> Young woman #4: Like, I feel like you really don't, 'cause especially 'cause, like, 21st century, we learn so much stuff outside of school now.

So, like, I feel like we already know how to handle ourselves in certain situations and what to do, what not to do when, like, depending on where we are.

>> Young woman #3: That means, like, by next year, we should be wearing uniforms.

>> Ferroni: By next year.

By next September, you should be wearing uniforms.

>> Young woman #5: No!

I'm moving!

What?

>> Young man: Personally, I don't believe that we should have uniforms because it's, like, expresses who you are.

>> Young woman #6: They're already restricting us enough.

>> Young woman #3: If you want us to wear uniforms, I'm pretty sure we'd have to wash them, like, every day.

>> Young woman #2: They give you more than one uniform to wear, so you don't have to wash it every day.

So they'll give you, like, two versions -- they'll give you a dress and then a bundle for the skirt.

>> Young woman #6: I see both sides of it, to be honest.

>> Young woman #7: We still have the Tag Days where you can express yourself.

>> Ferroni: We got mixed reactions.

Obviously none of them appreciated the fact that they were losing their identity and being controlled and forced to conform.

At the same time, some of the students saw the benefit of having a dress code or school uniform and certain aspects that they're creating an environment that's going to be more professional.

So when they get in the workplace, you know, their bosses can dictate what they wear and how they act.

How many of you, by show of hands, would be adamantly against any dress code school uniform, which included a physical aspect of it with hair and language and everything else?

Meaning, would you be against our school adopting a school uniform and forcing certain guidelines when it came to hair and physical appearance?

>> Students: Yes.

>> Ferroni: Okay.

So last but not least -- we're kidding.

>> Young woman #4: What?!

Are you serious?

[ Indistinct conversations ] >> Ferroni: Give me a time in history when a group has been stripped of their identity and their culture.

>> Young woman #4: Literally all of it.

>> Ferroni: Well, all of it.

All of it.

>> Young woman: So, seasoning and assimilation.

>> Ferroni: Perfect.

Alright, you guys will all get extra credit.

Students are pretty woke today.

They're much more intelligent.

They're much more passionate.

They're much more socially active.

They're aware of everything that's going on.

So they were able to bring up different aspects and things that are happening or that have happened.

Kids are pretty impressive and inspiring nowadays.

They care about other people and they're making a difference.

♪♪ >> Young woman #2: Give you more than one uniform to wear... >> Beatty: Finding ways to shine a light on social issues that will stay with students is something that motivates Mr. Ferroni.

In fact, we met him another time when we featured him on an installment of "Making the Grade" -- our series about the challenges of learning during the early days of the COVID pandemic.

♪♪ >> Ferroni: I teach my students a history of pop culture and culture studies.

They teach me how to use technology and their platforms.

TikTok used to be Musical.ly, which was basically a music format for musicians to do different videos with songs and even share their songs.

Most teachers, we always try to meet students where they are and try to find things that they're passionate about or different platforms that they use and kind of find a way to include it in our class.

I think that's always -- that's one of my favorite things to do as a teacher -- find out what they're doing and find a way to make it about content or class material.

Today's Dictionary.com Kids Word of the Day is loquacious.

It was so inspiring to see some educators literally overnight spend countless hours trying to learn different resources and different methods to engage and reach all their students.

I think this pandemic revealed a lot.

It revealed what teachers are willing to do and also what students truly need.

We're just trying to find multiple avenues to reach and connect with our students.

>> Masud: Right?

>> Beatty: Connecting with students creates an opportunity for awareness.

After awareness comes solutions, as we'll see in this next story about connecting global classrooms.

>> Masud: You are working on your scripts.

Some of you are working on the video itself.

Go ahead and split off and be global.

>> Beatty:: Students and teachers at Hillside School are building connections and tackling the world's problems by creating global classrooms.

>> Macht: Global Classrooms is a project that connects students at Hillside School with students in other locations.

They could be students in Dubai.

They could be students in Singapore.

Or as they students that I teach were connecting with students in Cleveland, Ohio.

And the purpose of the project is for students to being to understand that they are a part of a local community, but they are also part of a broader, global community.

>> Beatty:: The project was funded through a grant from the Hipp Foundation and involves multiple teachers and classes working on an assortment of projects, spanning subjects including language arts, music, and science.

>> Emma: Hey, Mr. Rodriguez's class.

My name is Emma.

I'm a 10-year-old fifth grade student that goes to Hillside Intermediate School in New Jersey.

>> Beatty:: For this global classrooms project, students are writing and filming personal video biographies to exchange with counterparts in Dubai.

>> Girl #3: We learn LAL -- Language Arts and Literacy -- as well as Math, Social Studies, and Science.

What topic or subjects do you learn in your school?

>> Masud: We feel that right now, there's a big sense of otherness, whether it's in the world or day-to-day life, and we want our kids to not only focus on the other, but the other us.

Meaning, yes, they're other, they're different, but they're also very much like us.

Just building that compassion and pulling that out of them.

>> Zas: Plastic is nonbiodegradeable, just like this shirt.

>> Beatty:: In science, students are learning how what they consume and where it comes from impacts the world.

>> Boy: 100% polyester.

>> Zas: Okay.

>> Boy #2: 100% polyester.

>> Zas: Okay, we got polyester, some blends.

Do you got a country where that's made from?

So I have El Salvador, India, Mexico, China, Indonesia, Cambodia.

Arming students with this knowledge of where your clothes come from means that we're not just buying clothes anymore.

We're not just buying water bottles.

We're aware of the impact that they make on the environment.

>> Macht: Tell me, what do you remember about the proper etiquette for conducting an interview?

My students have been researching service learning topics, topics of concern to them here locally, and then developing service action projects that they can implement at the same time that our Cleveland partners are looking at local problems in their own community, and they are implementing service action projects in their community.

>> Girl #4: What can we, as kids, do to help with the homeless animal problem?

>> Woman #2: My favorite question.

There are tons of ways that you can help homeless animals and advocate for animal welfare.

>> Macht: Today, they were actually trying to connect with experts in the field and conducting interviews via Google Hangouts of via Skype or even in-person interviews to gain more knowledge about the reason for the problem and how they might help the problem.

>> Matthew: How did you get into this field of helping?

>> Woman #3: I started 24 years ago with an exercise class at the senior center for seniors.

>> Matthew: Dr. Macht gave us a list of six topics, so I picked seniors because I knew there were all these problems.

So I just wanted to, like, get to know why these problems are happening, and how I can help them.

>> Boy #2: In your opinion, what is the biggest problem that the young generation is facing with education?

>> Boy #3: What specific school supplies do Kenya and Tanzanian children need?

>> Girl #5: How much is the government investing in education in Kenya?

>> Laura: We're learning about education in East Africa.

About, like, how children don't get a meaningful education every day like we do.

>> Ross: I think people tend to ignore things outside of their backyard because they haven't really expanded their mind to new challenges.

And the fact that we get to learn all about this is very interesting, and it helps us know that there's more things in the world than just our backyard.

We learned that they have their own dance team called the Roxies, and they even made it into a movie.

And one of the Roxies are 94 years old.

>> Beatty:: Global Classrooms was designed to bridge cultural gaps and shatter stereotypes by celebrating commonalities and differences.

>> Macht: The birth of Global Classrooms really came from an expression that I have hanging in my classroom that I've had for years.

And that is... And it actually all came from that one quote everything else that we have done since.

>> Girl #6: So, what do you think we should put here?

>> Laura: It makes me, like, I want to help those people.

I want to make them have a future, a good future so they can succeed and let their families get out of poverty.

'Cause when they succeed in the future, they're not only, like, helping their families to get out of poverty, but they're also helping their community.

>> Daine: I think I've been taking education for granted, and now it's really opened my eyes, and I want to help them.

>> Ross: It's not just us and the world.

The world doesn't revolve around us.

And if we learned about everything that's good and everything that's bad, then we can help other people and put people before us and not ourselves first.

>> Matthew: It's helped me grow as a person and understand it because, like, now I know things I can help with.

>> Macht: I think that this is a very important time for a project like this because I think it's important for people to remember that no matter where you are from, you have something to contribute.

To our society and to all of the planet.

And so, it's important for us to appreciate each other as human beings and as citizens of the earth.

Worked in the National Park in Kenya... >> All: You're watching "Classroom Close-up, New Jersey!"

>> Beatty: Now we're heading out of the classroom on a meaningful field trip before returning to school and an extended conversation about social media and the press.

This is Civics Unplugged.

♪♪ >> Narrator: One Sunday a month, for eight months, Frank Stebbins and six of his students board a train for Manhattan and head to the historic Roosevelt House at Hunter College.

There, they will gather with students from 10 other high schools to attend the Civics Unplugged Forum.

>> Silverman: Civics Unplugged is a nonprofit organization that is bringing children from all walks of life together to engage in the topics of today.

>> Spiller: When you guys go into the city, are you seeing where opinions are changing?

Whether, you know, your students are influencing others, or others are influencing them?

Are you seeing people of differing opinions get along?

>> Stebbins: It's really a great concept because even though we're so close, mileage-wise, to go talk to students who are in New York City and in a variety of different schools and backgrounds, really has been an extremely valuable experience.

>> Silverman: We take a topic, and then, we drive into a sub-topic that's really, really important to the kids at that time.

So, we talked about voter rights, but the real topic we focused on was gerrymandering.

We talked about the press, but the true topic that the kids can completely relate to is social media and the influence social media has had on the press.

>> Narrator: Frank and his students saw the relevance of that topic and wanted to continue the discussion.

So, they invited Jeffrey Silverman back to their classroom to do just that.

>> Silverman: When I was growing up, and I'm a little bit older than you guys, we had three networks.

It was ABC, NBC, and CBS.

And you had a number of papers -- local papers, and a few nationals.

>> Stebbins: The topic we talked about today was social media and its impact with journalism.

And a lot of us agreed that social media is our source for news, but when we ask ourselves "How credible is it," we often question its credibility.

>> Silverman: All of a sudden, social media has allowed anybody with a phone, access to the Internet, to be a reporter.

>> Stebbins: Does it have bias?

Do we have bias when we look at it?

It's such an important issue in not only analyzing the role that media has on us, but also, our role on social media ourselves.

Is social media a reliable source for receiving the news?

What -- how would you rank that amongst your choices?

>> Gabriella: One of the reasons that I disagreed that social media is a reliable source -- I said, once you comment, view, or like a page that has a personal bias in it, you continue to see that page and those views in it.

You don't see the other side.

I don't have social media, so I never knew how big of a problem this was in our society.

We also said "Quicker, but is it better?"

You know, like, we are receiving the information very fast, but you know, is it credible information?

It's very interesting to find out, like, why this is such a big problem.

>> Spiller: Is there a worry that you may have at all that we all start coming together, just finding people we agree with instead of maybe having -- maybe, what some would argue, part of a democracy -- you know, being able to engage with someone who has a totally different opinion, and maybe understand why you're not totally wrong and maybe I'm not totally right.

But if I can just go to you every time, because we just agree, and I found you -- is there a problem with that?

>> Young man: That also goes to our other point here, where it creates disillusionment.

>> Stebbins: As a viewer, what are you looking for in the news?

Our students present themselves in a way that makes me extremely proud.

It gives me hope for civic involvement going forward.

>> Young man: First and foremost, I want something that's credible, 'cause I want to watch to see, you know, what's actually happening.

I don't want fake news, you know what I mean?

I want something that's actually accurate and representative of the time.

And second, something particular -- when I hear of a breaking story, the first thing I go to is Twitter.

>> Silverman: Their level of knowledge is -- blows me away every single time.

And when you ask a question, it's like, "Holy cow.

Am I talked to a 35-year-old or am I talking to a 17- or 18-year-old?"

It was actually interesting to hear during your discussion that you turn to Twitter first for news.

>> Young man: On the Popular page -- how Twitter works -- you see literal videos of people posting what's going on.

So, say, if something happens or there's an incident, there will be people on the scene reporting with their cameras.

If Fox or CNN can't get there soon enough, it's all of us with our iPhones getting right there.

>> Stebbins: To have students who are dedicated to giving up a weekend and a Sunday to prepare for this and to go and actively participate, and more importantly, to be thinking about it in between sessions, about what their role is in their communities and how they want to be involved -- it's an extremely rewarding process.

>> Maryann: I truly think that that is the most important.

I really, really, like when I go there on Sundays, and I especially like that it's once a month.

So, when you are there, you really make sure that you're making the most of it.

And it's super interesting because you're meeting with other high schools, and these kids are from the five boroughs, they're from different socioeconomic statuses, they're from different cultures.

And it's really awesome to hear their perspectives that are sometimes very different from my own.

And I think that allows me to challenge my own, like, biases that I come with, and I leave with -- sometimes -- a very different perspective than when I started.

I think that's kind of the point.

>> Kayla: Controversy is sometimes a good thing because it gets people talking, and people disagree, and then, you find different point of views.

Sometimes, I get a little bit frustrated that people aren't also open to other people's ideas.

Because if you want someone to hear you out, who are you to just be very close-minded and not listen to what someone else has to say about the topic?

And I think that's the whole reason that we're there in civics -- to listen to everyone, and just grow as a person, and just become more civically engaged.

So, if you're not really open to that, then it kind of defeats the purpose.

>> All: Don't go away!

You're watching "Classroom Close-up."

Yay!

[ Laughter ] >> Beatty: There's a time when most adults who are becoming civically engaged start thinking about their tax bill.

In our final story, introducing the subject of taxation to young learners begins with some history and a little incentive.

>> Becker: We have been doing these awesome things to help us relate to people who lived a really, really, really long time ago.

So, today our experience is going to help us connect to the colonists, and yesterday we started talking about the idea of taxing, and we learned that England had a big war with France, and they needed to come up with a way to get money, and their solution to get money was... Taxing.

Very, very good.

>> Brooke: Today, we learned about taxes, how colonists were taxed, and it was actually pretty cool.

>> Narrator: Taxes?

How do you get fourth graders excited about the subject of taxation?

>> Julia: Jelly beans.

[ Jelly beans clattering ] ♪♪ >> Becker: So, I have, for you, cups with jelly beans in them.

So let's get one of these out.

You can touch them, but don't eat them.

We try to create experiences that will help students connect to things that happened prior to them.

So the idea was for them to understand the idea of taxing and to connect how the colonists didn't have a say in the taxing.

>> Matlosz: Hello, my fellow subjects, I am King George III.

I am here to announce five taxes.

>> Julia: Dr. Matlosz was the king, and he'd always say, like... >> Matlosz: If you have a pencil in your desk, you owe two candy pieces.

>> Russell: If we didn't have enough jelly beans to pay the taxes, we got sent to jail, and that's what basically happened back then.

You would have been driven out of your house and slapped in the slammer.

[ Chuckles ] >> Matlosz: If you have ties on your shoes, you owe four candy pieces.

Four candy pieces.

>> Russell: I actually survived throughout the whole thing, 'cause one of them was if you had laced shoes, and I'm all for the Velcro.

>> Becker: The other thing I forgot to tell you is that Summer's really, really rich.

>> Boy: Aw, come on.

No!

>> Julia: Everybody didn't get the same.

Summer, she got, like, probably around 20.

Kalie probably got around 20.

Daniel and Allie only got four, and I got 10.

>> Becker: I specifically chose two students that I would give an abundance of jelly beans to and two students that I would take away so they would only have four jelly beans.

So I was hoping that we could connect to the idea that if the taxing didn't affect them as much, maybe they wouldn't be so up to want to separate, they might stay loyal.

Where, on the other hand, you had students who had almost no money and they were put in jail very, very quickly, so the idea they would be more likely to be patriots.

>> Becker: Summer, why do you feel okay?

>> Summer: I have a ton of money, so I'm fine with it.

>> Brooke: I found out how it was kind of unfair how they were taxed, because some of the lower-class people didn't really have enough money to pay their taxes, so they had to go to jail for that.

>> Becker: Jules, how do you feel?

>> Julia: Really frustrated, because I only have one left.

>> Becker: Oh, no.

>> Julia: I had one jelly bean left, and he's like, "If you have blue eyes, then give me one jelly bean," so... >> Matlosz: You owe one candy piece -- one.

>> Julia: Even though I went to jail, it was kind of fun because it's like a little game.

>> Matlosz: If you have a brother, you owe two candy pieces.

Two.

>> Primavera: Her lessons come alive, and they're truly interactive.

The children are always, you know, getting up, walking around, working collaboratively with one another, and she brings a lot of different resources into her classroom.

>> Fritz: She's really actively engaging the kinesthetic learning, so she always has those kids moving, she has them talking, she has them just really engaged in whatever it is that she's teaching about.

>> Becker: So I have five questions you're going to be going through today with your group.

Talk a little bit.

At the end, what you're gonna be doing is choosing the question you feel most connected to.

So find a spot... >> Matlosz: We have a certain amount of time to hit every single subject matter, from math to reading to history to science, and for her to just focus on history, whether it's in reading or writing or just, as we saw through the lesson today, with economics for fourth graders, which is amazing in itself, there's this spark in her every day, and I think that's the part that amazes me, that no matter what time of day I show up to Jackie Becker's classroom, you're gonna see a phenomenal lesson.

>> Narrator: Lessons like the jelly-bean tax are one of the reasons Jaclyn was named the 2015 New Jersey History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

>> Becker: History's always been my passion.

I double majored in history and education, so I've been really trying to promote elementary social studies as much as I possibly can, because it's definitely something that gets pushed to the wayside sometimes because of time constraints.

And I have to say, it's been a really cool experience, getting to know people in the Gilder Lehrman program.

I think they're an amazing institute doing a lot to promote American History.

>> Matlosz: If you have a pet, you owe three candy pieces.

>> Becker: I love seeing them laugh and have fun in school, because education is changing so much and the expectations are so -- There's so much that these kids are required to do, and my best days are when I get to collaborate with my coworkers, when I get to experiment, and when I see them happy.

It's as simple as that.

>> All: You're watching "Classroom Close-Up"!

[ Jelly beans rattling ] >> Beatty: When educators have the opportunity to collaborate, there can be greater potential to create a more relevant learning environment, as we've seen today.

We hope you enjoyed watching these social studies projects, and we invite you to discover more by visiting our website, classroomcloseup.org, search in the video library.

We'll be back with another episode next week, so join us again right here on "Classroom Close-Up, New Jersey."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> Emma: Hey, Mr. Rodriguez's class.

My name is Emma.