Monday, August 1, 2016

Win Win with ESGI!

Welcome August!  I guess I need to embrace August and just beg it to go slowly.  There are still so many things I want to do, and August seems to fly by! 

I went into school over the weekend and put up the three bulletin boards that I do at the end of our primary wing.  The first one was inspired by I Wish You More, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  The other two were inspired by Pinterest ideas... :)  
                                     


I also entered all of my new class names into ESGI, so I am ready to go for this year!  If you haven't tried ESGI yet, now is the perfect time. 

Even Donald and Hillary know that ESGI is the only way to go- and you know that when they agree on something, it has to be great!

So... let's make assessing great again!

Not only can you get a FREE 60 day trial, but if you use the  PROMO CODE B1119 you can receive $40 off your purchase for the first year. The price is usually $199 a year, but with the promo code, it will be $159 for the first year. Many times your administration will purchase this for you, too, if you ask. They can also get the discount for each subscription they purchase.

AND if you sign up NOW, ESGI will enter you in a raffle to win one of ten $50 gift certificates to TpT! SO- try it free for 60 days, and when you love it, ask your school if they will purchase it for you.  Even if they can't, it is well worth every single penny for the sanity it saves you! 



Pre-Kindergarten - 1st Grade Classroom Tools

ESGI is so amazing throughout the entire year because it addresses our many assessment needs that arise at different times during  the year. Here's a quick post to show you how I use ESGI to start my year.

Before using ESGI, I assessed each student's letter ID and sounds on a paper sort of like this-  I had papers and "data" everywhere.  The trouble was, I was always rifling through papers to try to find what I needed (and by the time I found it, the child probably knew 5 more letters!)





I am not a techy person.  I actually think I tend to avoid much technology because I think it's simpler not to use it sometimes.  So for ME to say that I don't ever want to assess without using ESGI on my iPad ever again, says a lot.  It says that ESGI makes it SO EASY and SO QUICK.  And then gives SO MUCH assistance to teachers to help with students' areas of weakness.

ESGI has every sort of assessment you could want available to easily choose from and add to your assessments- OR you can create your  own.  For example, if your sight word list is a little different than those available, you can simply make your own with our words.  I made many assessments- so you know it's easy to do!

I can quickly call up my students one at a time, and get to spend a little one on one time "playing" with them on the iPad, while I see what they know!

Here's a sample of a number recognition assessment.  See how clear and easy it is to see and score?  You just hit the Y or N at the bottom.  The children don't even know you are assessing them.
                             
For all of the beginning year assessing we teachers do, ESGI is great- because all of our data is stored and organized for us right online.  Not only organized, but graphed and really useful for so many things as I start the year... grouping and RTI right off the bat!



I  print out flash cards for the letters each individual student missed, to use for RTI  and to send home with each student. Later on in the year, we move to sight words.  I use the sight word flash cards a LOT with my kids, too.
 ESGI  creates parent letters,  so parents knew exactly what skills need to be practiced at home.

I don't send any parent notes home this time because it's the beginning of the year, and the kids pick up letters quickly when we get going. I just wanted to show you what they would look like.   I do send home parent notes after we work on letters for a while,  if a student is stuck on certain letters.

You can also edit the letter to parents.

AND- I did not have one  stack of papers to flip through- not even one sheet of paper.  It was all right on my iPad.

Another favorite part of ESGI to start the year is the Class Management tools.  I can print pages for name tracing, cubby names, table name plates, class lists... you name it! What a time saver this time of year!  I have several students who just plain need name writing practice.  I can print out name pages for those students to practice with one click!  So easy.

 
As the year goes on, there are more and more benefits of ESGI.  If you want to learn more about ESGI and to get a free 60 day trial of the software, click here and try it out for yourself!  It's so easy to show your administrator the benefits of ESGI so they may purchase it for your grade level, too. Many schools are  encouraged to use more and more technology, and ESGI is perfect for that.

ESGI has a great explanatory video with all the details.  This Intro Webinar (17 minutes) is a very thorough explanation of the program. Once I watched these videos, I was all set to go.

Our RTI Team was just discussing how we needed better data collection and a more clear picture about the students coming to our RTI Team.  It doesn't get more clear than this!

If a district uses this program, every student can be entered.  The data and progress can be saved from year to year.  Groups can be created, so that only those in that group are compared.

I posted ALL about the benefits, bells and whistles,  and some examples of what ESGI offers HERE.  If you like using it and want to purchase the program, you can use my special PROMO CODE B1119 and receive $40 off your purchase for the first year. The price is usually $199 a year, but with the promo code, it will be $159 for the first year. Check with your administration because they may be able to purchase it for you. They can use the code and get it for $159 for the first year, too.  It's a great time of the year to try it out. 

It has made me actually enjoy assessments now, because I know I'm not going to be wasting time. It's quick and neat. The results are easy to see and the materials for RTI are already made for me!

So- go ahead and give it a try FREE for 60 days, and be entered to win one of the ten $50 gift cards from TpT! You will be so glad you did.



Pre-Kindergarten - 1st Grade Classroom Tools
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