Saturday, March 11, 2017

Get Lucky with ESGI!



Are you feeling lucky? Because it's your lucky day!

I've written many times about the benefits of and my love for ESGI as an assessment tool that I use in my classroom.  Not only is it such a time saver and easy-to-use assessment tool that gives me TONS of information at my fingertips, graphed any way I could want, and easy to use and access wherever I am- WITHOUT fumbling through paper after paper-  but it also provides me with so many extras that just plain help me out in my daily teaching.  It's obvious that this program was created by a teacher who GETS IT. (Thank you, Greg Gorman!)  ESGI has really changed my life in the classroom. I posted ALL about the benefits, bells and whistles, and some examples of what ESGI offers HERE.

So many assessment tools were created by software engineers who understand software.  ESGI was created by a TEACHER who understands both software AND what educators want.  There is no comparison to any other assessment program.

If you are a teacher who does not yet use ESGI for our one on one assessments, ESGI is offering some exiting big deals from now until April 10th!

First,  if you sign up for a 60 day trial before April 10, ESGI will extend the trial so you have 5 months free instead of only the usual 60 days.  The trial will go through through August 31! Just use this special code to enter:  https://www.esgisoftware.com/sign-up/?promo=B1119

Also, you will be entered to win the Pot of Gold MYSTERY Prize which will be announced on April 11th!  None of us know what the mystery prize will be, but... knowing ESGI, it will be something awesome!

This special promo code also lets you take $40 off the price for the first year, so in the fall after this free promo, you will be paying $159 a year for the subscription.  If your district purchases the program for you, they can also receive the discount if they use the code!  If your team doesn't use ESGI yet, it's a great time for all of you to try it and see what you think.  The great part about an entire grade level using ESGI is that you can easily compare data for all students!  This is perfect for helping to determine RTI and AIS groups, and SO many other things- and it's impressive to show administrators all this organized, easy to read data.

This time of year, my favorite parts of ESGI are our sight word assessment and the ability to create flash cards for each student to reinforce the words they miss.  I keep a set of flashcards at school to use for RTI, and I send home a packet of words each week for students to practice at home.   It's so easy for me, because I just have to hit "print" and the professional looking flashcards are printed (with each child's name on top- so they don't even get mixed up!)
I can also print out a parent letter for each student which explains exactly what each child needs to work on at home.  

Our school doesn't send homework in kindergarten.  We send books to read each night, but not paper/pencil  homework.   I send the flashcards on Friday along with some games or ideas to do with the flashcards so it's fun for families.  For example, set a timer and see how many words the child can get in a set time.  Time the child to see how quickly he can read the cards, then, do this again and try to beat that time!  (They love contests!),  Keep piles of "yes" and "no" words.  See if the child can get all the words in the "yes" pile!  Hide the cards around the house and have the child find each card, then read them to you (or write them ) as she finds them.   Put one word on each stair and have the child read each stair as they climb to the top.   There are so many fun ways to play with flashcards!

My other favorite this time of  year is the name tag generator. The students are now working on first and last names, so I make several sets of names for practice. I use them for seating, but also for the children to make rainbow names, find sight words or chunks in their names, and as a matching game with pictures. 
(This is a sample of the first names on Table Name Plates.)

There are SO MANY other benefits EGSI offers.  We all need to show more and more data, it seems, and ESGI makes it so easy to do!  Not only easy- but useful!  Sometimes it seems we collect data for the sake of collecting data- but the information I collect on ESGI is what I use to guide my instruction with each individual student each day.

ESGI has a great explanatory video with all the details.  This Intro Webinar (17 minutes) is a very thorough explanation of the program.  

So now is the PERFECT time to give ESGI a try!  Don't wait another minute.  You'll have your class list set up in no time and be so anxious to start assessing.  I'm so excited for you to give it a try.  Here is that promo code again to enter you for the prizes and to get your discounts:  https://www.esgisoftware.com/sign-up/?promo=B1119

A quick review-  I asked some reliable teacher dogs to help me out with their opinions and here you go...

Go ahead... give it a try!  I know you'll love it.


Since we're on a lucky streak, each year I have my children tell me why they are lucky, so I can put their pictures over their lockers during March. They never fail to make me smile.



In my next life, I want to come back with his confidence:



Thank you for stopping by!

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