What We're Hearing from the Field

We received some feedback about our new weekly series with Dean Graziano, Vice President of Education at izzit.org, called Civics with Dean.

Have you had a chance to check out these new blogs? If not, read our latest blog here.

My Top Three Educational Sites for Middle School Social Studies by Mike Siekkinen

Brainpop.com- very reasonable pricing for a school license. Fun, fast and informative website for history, geography, economics and culture. I use the site to supplement my classroom instruction. Students receive a login and password and then go to the topic I assign. I have students view the video that is with each topic and then explore the area. There are games and activities associated with each of the topics as well as a quiz on the subject matter. I have my students email the results or take a screen shot of the final results. I place an 80% or higher requirement on students and they are allowed to retake the quizzes until passing grades are obtained. Site is fun and middle schoolers are not to “old” for cartoons!

Icivics.org- awesome free website on government and politics. Lots of games that are fun and educational. Also many levels, so this site can work for all ages. Games are interactive and are great to use when teaching government. Website has the endorsement and a founder of none other than Sandra Day O’Connor. Lots of fun and you sneak learning in. My students really enjoy this site.

Freedomflix.com- interactive online textbook that is great for teaching civics and history. Very reasonably priced for a site license. I design web quests for my students. Each lesson has a video, interactive text with vocabulary and includes maps, timelines and pictures. Really great site that I use weekly. My students are always on a web quest supplementing my classroom instruction. I assign students web quests in Google classroom where they have options for submission of my web quest information to allow for differentiation.

Dr. Mike Siekkinen, a retired U.S. Navy submariner, became a teacher as a second career. He teaches history at St Marys Middle School as well as Adult and Career Education at Valdosta State in Georgia.

Use izzit! by Mike Siekkinen

To start off, I am not an employee of izzit. I am a public school teacher who happens to be a big fan of izzit products. Being this is a blog on the izzit site; I cannot assume that everyone who reads this knows about izzit products, so thought I would do a shout out about the awesome stuff that is here on this site for you, free of charge. 

First of all, my favorite - the videos! Although I have my favorites (namely 2081 and Pennies a Day), they are all high quality products and you cannot beat the price! The video 2081 is the only video I have shown in 14 years of teaching that I have had students ask to borrow and take home to watch again with their parents. All I can say is WOW! 

I have used about 2/3 of the titles offered to supplement instruction in my classroom. Included with each video is a lesson plan which can be very helpful when including these in your plans. I tend to like hard copies of the DVD. This is mainly because they can be used without the internet and I can also have these available for a substitute who cannot log into a computer. Most titles are also streaming (with a few exceptions). If you are new to izzit and like the products, I encourage you to tell other teachers. And tell izzit as well. These great resources, while free to us, do cost the wonderful funders who make it possible. So your feedback lets them know that their investment in education is appreciated and well used.

What’s your favorite izzit video?


Dr. Mike Siekkinen, a retired U.S. Navy submariner, became a teacher as a second career. He teaches history at St Marys Middle School as well as Adult and Career Education at Valdosta State in Georgia.