Assessing Students

Recently, I've seen several posts on facebook asking about how people manage assessments for their students. Since we just finished our second round of report cards, I wanted to share again how much our kindergarten team has loved using ESGI as an assessment tool.

I know that we all have running records, benchmarks, and other "tests" that we must give to our students. Some are useful, some- not so much. A few years ago, I think all of the us in our district felt like all we were doing was assessing, which was taking away from our teaching.

This past year, our district bought ESGI for our kindergarten team to use, and it has saved us so much time. I just wanted to pass it on to you. ESGI is an online assessment tool that lets you choose the assessments that fit exactly what you need- or let you create your own. You give the assessment right on the iPad (or computer) and the data is stored there- forever- to be accessed from where ever you need it.

No paper, no mess, no losing anything, no looking for the assessment sheet you need for this child or that child.

The data is available in all different ways at the touch of a finger. It's usable and practical. And the kids lovvvve doing it with you. It's like a game for them.

That is my favorite part of ESGI. It was created by a kindergarten teacher, Greg Gorman - and you can tell. ESGI has all of the components that a teacher would think, "It would be great if..." It generates flashcards for areas a student needs extra help with that you can print.

It creates parent notes to inform parents about areas they could work on at home. YOU don't have to do it. It is done!

I KNOW! And just when I thought it had everything I could think of, they added MORE.

Here is a visual:

Assessments before using ESGI...

And... Assessments AFTER using ESGI:

Yeah, it's pretty clear.

I posted ALL about the benefits and some examples of what ESGI offers HERE. If you want to learn more about ESGI and to get a free 60 day trial of the software, click 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. 

Have a wonderful rest of the week!



February Favorite 3 on the 3rd

I just LOVE this Linky hosted by  PAWSitively Teaching and Inspired Owl's Corner. It's so much fun to do, and fun to read the other great pins people share.  Thank you for hosting!  If you would like to share your three favorite pins, you can link up at the end of this post!

Here are my February favorites!

How cute and easy are these heart shaped foods?  It would be fun to have a soup or salad with heart shaped carrots with a piece of pizza and heart shaped pepperoni for Valentine's Day! 

These carrots are from Recipe By Photo.

This idea was from Valentine.tipjunkie.com - but the site is no longer available.  I thought it was so sweet. 

I have actually made these heart shaped cupcakes using a marble to turn the regular cupcake liner into a heart.  It's simple and it works!  These pictures are from Blessings Multiplied. She made red velvet cupcakes.  Yum. 

YEARS ago when my children were little, one of them got a Doodle a Day Daily Calendar for Christmas.  I enlarged the Valentine doodles and made a simple drawing book for my class, which they have loved.  Plus, they get to use the glitter crayons- so... it's a winner. 

If you would like a copy of my little drawing book, click on the picture below!

These Love Gloves are a really sweet gift for the children to make for parents for Valentine's Day. The would also be a great Mother's Day gift.  I posted about it here to show how I made them.  They're so easy.  I usually try to get the gloves at the end of the season on sale and save them for the next year.  



I'd love to see your favorites!  Link up below if you'd like to share some pins.  Thanks for stopping by!

An InLinkz Link-up

Substitute Groundhog (and some FREEBIES!)

Today we had so much fun with  Substitute Groundhog by Pat Miller.  I wanted to share this book with you before the big day next week!

First of all, Pat Miller's books are just PRECIOUS!   She also wrote Squirrel's New Year's Resolution which we love every year.

It's hard to find good books for New Year's and Groundhog's Day- and these are great ones.

Pat actually wrote to  our class and sent us labels for the inside of  our books.  We were all star struck that a real author of books that we love would write to us!  So now- these are even MORE special books to me.

The funny thing is that all of my kids will believe that a leprechaun wrote them a note, or that an elf is watching and messed up the room.  BUT when I  showed them the note that Pat wrote to us and the book plate inside the book, some of them were like, "YOU wrote that.  We think YOU wrote that."  Really?  That's how famous and awestruck we are with authors of books that we love.  Santa, elves, and leprechauns are logical, but an author actually writing to us- NO WAY!  

Anyway, it's real.  She did write.  And I feel just as excited as the kids!

First of all, in the story, Groundhog isn't feeling well , so he needs to have a substitute fill in for him on the big day.  This gave me a chance to talk about what a substitute is- since the last time I was out of the class, the kids asked me when the "step teacher" was coming...  

Groundhog tries out a few different applicants for the job, but there is always some sort of a problem.  One of the friends is Eagle- which was a perfect chance for me to ask the children why Eagle would be a good choice! (Because he can see so well- with his EAGLE EYES, like we use for reading!)

Spoiler Alert:  The ending is adorable, because an armadillo finally takes the job- and then makes Groundhog feel better by taking him back to Texas for some Texas sunshine! (I could use some of that right about now...)  It was fun to show the children where Texas was on the map (since we are in NY), and to hear how many relatives lived in Texas.

After we read the story and talked about it,  I had the kids write and illustrate a reason why they would be a good substitute groundhog.  Here were some of the answers:

I made some writing prompts to go with Substitute Groundhog is you would like a copy! 

Ms. S and Ms. A's Classroom News shared this cute little doodle activity making a groundhog and shadow from a heart!  I have lots of heart tracers for Valentine's day, so this will be fun to do.

My kids also get a kick out of this song:

                             

Happy Groundhog Day!  Come on, Groundhog-  DON'T see that shadow!





Thanks for stopping by!