Celebrating New Jersey’s Schools
Classroom Close-up, NJ on NJN Public Television
Mondays at 6:30 pm and Saturdays at 9:00 am

Trenton, NJ – Classroom Close-up, NJ on NJN Public Television shares with viewers compelling stories about the students, teachers, and community members developing and participating in successful and creative school programs statewide. In January, Classroom Close-Up, NJ features a visit with the New Jersey Teacher of the Year, Karen Ginty of Monmouth Beach Elementary School; a trip to the Afro American Historical Society Museum with children from Jersey City’s PS 34; and a look at AP biology students participating in a CSI-type “whodunnit” at Nottingham North H.S. in Hamilton. Tune in this month for these and other inspiring stories about what’s going on in New Jersey’s schools.

An original weekly program, Classroom Close-up, NJ airs on NJN Public Television Mondays at 6:30 pm and is rebroadcast Saturdays at 9:00 am. Classroom Close-up, NJ is a co-production of NJN and the New Jersey Education Association. Additional funding for the show is provided by PSE&G and BNY Mortgage, a Bank of New York Company. Classroom Close-up, NJ is web streamed at njn.net and can be seen on cable stations throughout New Jersey, on NJN’s JerseyVision, and on Time Warner Cable on channel 750 in New York.

Classroom Close-up, NJ, Monday, January 1 at 6:30 pm and Saturday, January 6 at 9:00 am
• Poetry Festival for Educators – Hundreds of New Jersey teachers attend the biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival at Waterloo Village in Stanhope each year. Many of them are poets themselves, but the value of the festival for these educators is what it teaches them about bringing poetry to life for their students.
• Brown Bag Book Bunch – Students from William H. Ross Elementary in Margate City bring a brown bag lunch into the library for a unique book club. The theme is “Character for Life”, and students read about people who face and overcome obstacles. For more on this reading program, go to: http://www.margateschools.org/whr/mediacenter_ross/brownbag.html
• Integrated Learnin – Mt. Arlington School students participate in “hands-on" team projects that incorporate critical, creative/open-ended thinking, decision making, problem solving, and real-world applications. The sixth grade classes design and build cars out of pasta shapes - think of the "pasta"-bilities! The fifth graders concentrate on a bridge design and construction project.
• Dad & Me – Fathers and their children from Trenton gather at Gregory Elementary on a Saturday to learn strategies for a family approach to succeeding in school. Dads learn about MegaSkills, which are strategies that build confidence, motivation, responsibility, team work and problem solving. They also learn about recognizing signs of gang activities. Together, dads and kids learn about educational play.

Classroom Close-up, NJ, Monday, January 8 at 6:30 pm and Saturday, January 13 at 9:00 am
• Pilot’s Log – Known for its deft reporting and thoughtful analysis, the Hasbrouck Heights High School newspaper is “the voice of the students.” These journalism students aren’t afraid to tackle often provocative issues while learning skills that are useful across the curriculum and in many career choices.
• Latina Pride – Because of an increase in teen pregnancy and the drop-out rate of girls entering high school, teachers Joan Wheeler and Cheryl Berek have started a new group called Latina Pride for eighth grade girls at Frelinghuysen Middle School in Morristown. Through group discussions and guest speakers, the girls work on creating a sense of self esteem. The group also focuses on community service, so the girls volunteer at a local day care.
• Beauty and the Beast – Special education students from Regional Day School in Jackson learn all kinds of skills by putting on the play Beauty and the Beast. They use arts and crafts to produce the props and scenery. The speech therapist works with the students on their language skills while the occupational therapist uses stage theatrics to enhance their movement skills.
• Make a Splash – About 200 students from Rush Intermediate School in Cinnaminson attend the fifth annual Make a Splash Water Festival at Palmyra Cove Nature Park. Children and adults learn about the characteristics, the uses, and abuses of water. This project involves the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and is part of an international effort called Project WET (Water Education for Teachers). For more info go to www.projectwet.org.

Classroom Close-up, NJ, Monday, January 15 at 6:30 pm and Saturday, January 20 at 9:00 am
• Getting to Know You – Special needs and at-risk students from Pinelands Regional Junior High School in Tuckerton share an intergenerational experience with residents of Sea Crest Nursing Home in Little Egg Harbor. The students adopt a senior citizen who shares their life story. At the end of the year, each student presents a gift of an original biography highlighting the life and times of their adoptive senior. This program is funded through the NJEA Frederick L. Hipp Foundation for Excellence in Education.
• Parent Academy – Teachers at Mercer County’s Washington Township Public School District develop and offer workshops for parents in the district. The topics range from dealing with ADD to the history of the township.
• School Bus Security – Homeland Security is working closely with New Jersey public school bus drivers to make sure all children are safe from terrorist threats while traveling to and from school. Homeland Security will present a program during the NJEA Convention, with support from the Gloucester Township Public Schools Transportation Department, police, and other emergency personnel.
• NJEA Convention – Touted as one of the leading educational professional development opportunities in the nation, NJEA hosts over 300 workshops during its two-day convention. The list of topics is endless – from instructional strategies in all content areas, to research-based programs for enhancing the classroom.

Classroom Close-up, NJ, Monday, January 22 at 6:30 pm and Saturday, January 27 at 9:00 am
• Environmental Ethics – New Jersey teachers play a leading role in the development of the Monarch Teacher Network, which links Mexico, Canada, and the United States through the migration of the Monarch Butterflies. Teachers from several states, including New Jersey, attend a workshop on environmental ethics and how it links to the butterflies. Like the Monarch Butterfly, the teacher network is transforming as it reaches out to include more states and provinces, and encourage students to not only take care of each other, but to take care of the environment too.
• SOS – Support on Site is a program for teachers in Gloucester Township. Teachers from James W. Lilley School in Erial and Loring Fleming School in Blackwood meet on a regular basis to talk about the joys and pitfalls of a new career in education. The goal is to retain teachers in the district and give the new teachers a good start on their careers.
• Teen Arts – A dancer from Lambertville and a jazz professor from Princeton are just two of the many professionals who participate each year in the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival. Nearly 7,000 New Jersey teens attend this two-day event, which features critiques by professional artists, exhibitions and workshops. Dancer Mark Roxey and Professor Anthony Branker return each year because they get as much as they give in the form of inspiration and encouragement.
• World Village – Each year upperclassmen studying World Languages at Kittatinny Regional High School in Newton create a World Languages Village. The village has a bank, ethnic restaurants, gift shops and tourist attractions so the underclassmen can practice their French, Spanish and German in a fun yet challenging

Classroom Close-up, NJ, Monday, January 29 at 6:30 pm and Saturday, February 3 at 9:00 am
• Teacher of the Year 2007 – This year’s top teacher in New Jersey is Karen Ginty, a kindergarten teacher at Monmouth Beach Elementary School. The 33-year veteran uses creative approaches to excite her students about learning.
• Whodunnit? – Advance Placement Biology students at Nottingham North High School in Hamilton participate in a CSI-type "Whodunnit?" With the help of Princeton University, which supplies the school with equipment for cheek cell extraction, students use DNA analysis to determine which administrator stole a chocolate cake from the Teacher's Lounge.
• History Detectives – Children from Jersey City’s PS 34 visit the Afro American Historical Society Museum, where they meet Tukufu Zuberi, co-host of the PBS television show History Detectives.
• Aquaculture – Chuck Gehman's high school horticulture class at Middle Township High School in Cape May County learns how to farm tilapia. The interdisciplinary project involves biology, chemistry, physics, horticulture and ecology. This program is funded through the NJEA Frederick L. Hipp Foundation for Excellence in Education.