It's been such a blessing to be a part of your day, learning with you, get to interact with you is the main reason CNN 10 for me is the best 10 minutes in news.

Let's get this final show of the year started.

Most often with our show, we take you to places near and far to explore the latest news stories.

But today, we traveled to some of you. Texas, and Delaware.

We spent a morning with 9th Graders at South Brunswick School in New Jersey, one of three states that requires K through 12 schools to offer media literacy courses.

Starting next year, a fourth state will be added to the list with California, joining New Jersey, Texas, and Delaware.

Now media literacy might sound like a convoluted term, but the nonprofit organization, media literacy now explains it as a way to teach young people how to consume and evaluate information in our complex and interchanging media landscape.

The aim is to empower students like you to ask critical questions and avoid manipulation.

Why is this important?

Well, as our world moves online, more people are getting their news from social media outlets.

And while these resources allow for more diverse voices and stories to be heard, it also opens the door for misinformation and then manipulation at times.

From manipulating images and videos to half-truths and false profiles to even online intimidation, there are plenty of tactics being used every day to confuse and mislead.

So how do you equip audiences to be savvy news consumers in this Wild West type of environment?

One of our CNN 10 producers, Natalia Osipova, spoke to teachers and students of the media literacy class to show you what it's all about.

I think the big public sources, there's so many of them, and they all have different viewpoints. And it's hard to see which one true or not.

I thought it was very interesting to think about the word choice that people use and how it can influence your opinions.

When we poll our students, we found that 75% of them get their information off of social media.

How do you become a more savvy news consumer?

I'd like to say that my 14-year-olds are better at information gathering than their parents and their grandparents might be.

The media lessons allow them to take that skill and then add to it.

We're going to use something called Lateral Reading to help you figure out if what's what you're reading is credible or not.

And if you find something that you think is trying to make you feel a certain ways, even better.

Wait a minute. Why am I feeling like this? Do I believe this? Or I just told somebody something happened, but did I even check that that actually happened or that that's even a big deal to me?

Like, why am I saying it's a big deal?

Tell me what words you see in these headlines that you think shows bias.

Revenge.

So much of what we hear is you're attacking the other side or attacking the other person.

Media literacy has absolutely nothing to do with which side of the debate you're on.

And I often say to my students, I don't care if you are conservative or you are liberally. It really doesn't make a difference to me.

Whatever article you're choosing, I want you to be able to look at it from a critical lens and really make my decision about whether or not this is a trustworthy article.

How else can I say it besides threatened?

Take it down a notch for me, how do you state it factually?

You can have an opinion on either side, but you should be able to validate that opinion with a fact-based article.

Information literacy is going to give them those skills.

So is the photograph that's attached to that story flattering, neutral or unflattering?

What does that say about this?

Whether or not we should trust this article.

You give them how to decide if something is credible, how to detect bias, how to determine if something is coming from a credible source.

If you pair that with what they already do well, I think then you have the potential to really see change.

I think it's important to have these classes at school because they're more people turning 18, and a lot of them are getting all of their information from social media that'll impact how they vote and will impact the country as a result.

We don't want to limit those research skills to just their school projects, because think about your own life.

Like we all have that aunt that wants to post things and the things that they're posting, maybe aren't 100% accurate.

We want to give our kids language to be able to speak to that, to say, "Hey, I was interested in that topic too. And I get some research and here are two other sites I found that talk about that topic differently."

That's giving the person that you're talking to the opportunity to reflect on what you said.

Maybe read a little bit and not feel like you're attacking them, which I think is really dangerous in this media environment.

These are kids that are going to go out and do brilliant things.

We need them to think about how they accept information in a smarter way, because I think that will change the way we all do.

10-Second Trivia: Counting repeats, how many total items are gifted in the song "12 Days of Christmas?"

12, 364, 199, 93?

Adding up all those turtle doves, French hens, drummers drumming, and golden rings, it's yet 364 items, almost one for every day of the year.

As we come to the end of 2023, one of the biggest pieces of economic news that's been hitting our wallets this year is inflation.

Even the classic holiday song, "12 Days of Christmas" is not immune to it.

In what has become an annual holiday tradition, PNC bank calculates the prices of all 12 gifts from the Carol and releases what it calls the Christmas Price Index.

It's similar to the U.S. consumer price index, which measures the changing prices of goods and services that the average American consumer spends on, such as housing, food, clothing, and transportation.

The 40th Annual Christmas Price Index showed an increase of 2.7%.

But the good news, that's much less than last year's heavy 10.5% increase.

If you add up all 12 gifts that may get the latest Christmas Price Index report, the total cost increased nearly $47,000 this year.

Although the partridge cost was unchanged, there was a 15% jump for the pear tree, a symbol for housing costs that continue to move higher even as mortgage rates are at their highest since 2000.

The turtle doves are the most volatile gift price in the index this year, growing by 25%.

The cost reflects their rarity.

There were several gifts with no price increases from last year, including the four calling birds, five gold rings and seven swans a-swimming.

If you're looking to buy all gifts mentioned, a total of 364 items as the gifts are constantly repeated throughout the iconic song, get ready to dish out nearly $202,000, 2.5% more than last year.

It's the first time that purchasing all the gifts crossed the $200,000 threshold.

Today's story getting a 10 out of 10 comes out of Springfield, Missouri.

This Santa Claus knows sign language.

Meet the big guy, breaking through barriers to spread holiday cheer.

This signing Santa communicates with deaf and hearing-impaired children using ASL, or American Sign Language, making sure that no one feels left out and that every kid can get direct access to share their holiday wish list with the big man.

All right, hope all of you are getting ready for that holiday spirit, whatever holidays you may enjoy, I know I sure am.

It's time now for our shoutouts of the year, the final ones of 2023.

This shout-out goes to the Eagles at Discovery Middle School in Fargo, North Dakota, rise up.

And this shoutout goes to the Glacier Bears, way up in Haines, Alaska, Haines High School, rise up.

I'd like to take this moment to speak for my entire team here at CNN 10.

When I say thank you from the bottoms of our hearts, for all the love you show, we love learning and going with you, being unified, inspired and uplifted by the stories we share.

And to my team, you're the best teammates anyone could ask for, thank you for caring and working so hard to make CNN 10, the best 10 minutes in years.

We'll be right back here with you January 8th, and we wish you lots of joy, peace, love, and happiness this holiday season.

Let's finish this 2023 strong, take boundless energy into the New Year, where I will be reporting from the future, chaser.

I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10. It's been a blessing to spend this year with you.