Free for teachers: award-winning videos and teaching tools on economics and politics are available from several organizations, as given below.
Izzit
More than 300,000 teachers and homeschoolers already use Izzit for classroom materials. Izzit offers tons of free videos (DVD and streaming) on a variety of topics — all free for teachers.
Per Izzit: ” We provide U.S. based educators and homeschoolers with free educational videos designed to promote critical thinking skills and respectful debate among students. Our teaching units include a variety of teacher resources, with full teacher’s guides that include free worksheets, lesson ideas, discussion questions, graded online quizzes, and more. We also offer two free daily Current Events articles which include discussion questions and vocabulary words. Reminder email service available. Need to know the relevant educational standards? We provide that.”
Izzit provides materials both through its homepage and YouTube channel.
Stossel in the Classroom
Stossel in the Classroom offers DVDs, lesson material, and a $1,500 essay contest — all free for teachers. Content includes a series of economics and politics videos (both DVDs and streaming) based on the work of award-winning TV journalist John Stossel, complete with lesson plans, graphic organizers, activity suggestions, viewing guides, assessment, and vocabulary.
This program also offers an essay contest for students, with cash prizes and an all-expense-paid trip to NYC for the winning student, an adult chaperone, and the teacher who submitted the essay. More than 150,000 teachers have made Stossel in the Classroom part of their lesson plans. “Stossel in the Classroom was created to encourage critical thinking in our schools. By making it easy for teachers to include a fresh perspective in their classrooms, these videos have inspired millions of students to expand their understanding of free markets and of life.”
Stossel in the Classroom provides materials both through its homepage.
Free to Choose TV
Although not specifically directed at teachers, Free to Choose TV offers an outstanding series of free high-quality streaming PBS documentaries. The content is best accessed via the homepage as it’s well organized there, but a companion organization Free to Choose Network is where the content is housed on YouTube.
2081
The makers of this short film, based on a Kurt Vonnegut story, went out of their way to make engaging classroom materials related to it. The story “depicts a dystopian future in which, thanks to the 212th Amendment to the Constitution and the vigilance of the United States Handicapper General, everyone is ‘finally equal.'” It’s a thought-provoking film on topics including resistance, art overcoming oppression, and equality, ideal for discussion. Both the film and the classroom materials are free for teachers.
Secrets of the Magna Carta
The acclaimed Secrets of the Magna Carta series is available free to educators, along with a variety of teaching materials and lesson plans.