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.

Discount Membership Sale EXTENDED!!

We extended our Discount Membership Sale...

This membership includes:
• Receive a 50% discount off regular webstore prices for most izzit.org products.

• 12 month membership (from date of purchase)
Price: $4.95

Click here to learn more or purchase now.

Special Offer - Pick One, Get One!

This month (Jan 4 - Jan 31, 2015) we're running a special at izzit.org.

If you pick as your Free Annual Video (FAV) either A World of Money (which tells the story of the history of money from all the way back  when a person was "worth their salt") or Locked Out! Roots of the Arab Spring (the powerful story of Tariq Mohamed Bouazizi, a pushcart vender whose altercation with the corrupt local government led to the start of the Arab Spring) we will AUTOMATICALLY send you the other of the pair as a bonus.

Just pick either one as your FAV. We'll do the rest.

Holiday Special!

Happy holidays! We're running a holiday special right now on the izzit.org webstore. If there are DVDs you'd love to have, but don't want to wait until your next free DVD pick is available, we're offering 50% off now through Dec. 20! Simply use the promo code Holiday50 when you check out from the webstore.

We've also got a POGO (Pick One, Get One) special going on right now. Chinese New Year is Jan. 31, and we've paired A Taste of Chocolate, the story of Jimmy Lai, who was smuggled from Communist China as a 12-year-old, with The People's Economy, a look at how China is changing. If you pick one of these DVDs this month, we'll send you the other one as a special FREE bonus!

New release - Monkey Business!



There’s no business like…monkey business? 

 

Our new izzit.org teaching unit follows Katarina Rybarikova and her family in Slovakia as they pursue Katarina’s dream of bringing the Paul Frank brand, with its distinctive monkey logo, to Europe. As a child growing up in communist controlled Czechoslovakia, she experienced very little freedom or economic opportunity.  Even after liberation from the Soviet Union and the split into two separate countries, times were tough. But with the right economic changes, things are looking up for Katarina and her family!

 

The DVD is recommended for grades 7-12, and covers a variety of topics, from Communism and Democracy, to Paternalism and Individual Responsibility. It includes a bonus interview with the authors of the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World Report, explaining how the index works and the correlations they’ve discovered between economic freedom and people’s well-being. It also covers the U.S. decline on the index, and likely reasons for the change.

 

Big Shipping Day!

It's shipping day today at izzit.org, and this week was a big one - over 3600 DVDs going out today! Each of those mailing bags (we had to use the big bags this week) holds about 100 DVDs.

Half of those are our newly updated The Great Depression 2.0!

We had two teams running shipping this week, and it took us about 3 1/2 hours to get them all prepared to go out.

Here's hoping we have more great weeks like this one. (So don't forget to tell your teaching friends about us!)



Our new DVD, The Great Depression 2.0, is flying off the shelves! Just last week, more than half our inventory was selected by teachers eager for this useful, updated tool for their classroom.

But don't worry - we've already ordered more copies! So if you've been looking for a video to help you teach the Great Depression, look no longer. The Great Depression 2.0 is available now!

Perhaps you've been using the original version of our DVD.  Please visit the product's webpage to see the updated Teacher's Guide. (If you're eligible to pick a DVD, you can choose the new version, The Great Depression 2.0, because our website considers it an entirely different product.)

Have you gotten your free izzit.org DVD yet this year? *



*(Offer available to all US K-12 teachers.)

New Release & Contest!

Welcome back!

 Summer zoomed past us and by now, most of you are back to the classroom. We’ve got some great stuff coming up for you.

Great Depression 2.0 is our first “new” release for the year. It’s actually an updated version of our popular Great Depression DVD. We found that there was some confusion on some of the main points, so we’ve updated it to clarify. It’s got a new introduction, a new conclusion, and the Teacher Guide has also been updated. (If you selected the original version and are eligible to choose another FREE DVD, you can select Great Depression 2.0 – it’s considered a different product by our system, so it will allow you to choose the updated version.)

Want to win a 7” Kindle Fire HD tablet? Check out our Back-to-School contest!  There’s no essay involved, but we do want to know about your summer vacation!

As for me…during one of my summer road trips, I visited the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, MI. It was beautiful! So head over to our contest page, read the rules, and tell us about something you did this summer to enter!

It's SUMMER - and teachers rejoice!

"Though we've gotta say goodbye, for the summer..."

Okay, not really.  We'll still be here, all summer long, planning for the new school year, prepping to bring you more terrific educational DVDs and teacher resources.

So while you're reading, decompressing, enjoying the beach, taking classes yourself, designing new bulletin boards, and doing all those other things teachers do over summer vacation, if you need some help from us, we're still here, 8 am-6 pm EST, every weekday. Call us (toll free: 888-242-0563)or email us (ask@izzit.org).

When you come back...be prepared to write an essay, "What I Did on My Summer Vacation."  (Just kidding! Have some fun!)