Ahh assessments...I hate the idea of having to do them. The word "assessment" just stresses me out. And they are coming up soon.... really soon!
Last year I learned about ESGI and that has literally saved my assessment life.
Spoiler Alert..... There is a HUGE giveaway for a full year's subscription to ESGI at the end of this post!
I have 26 kids in my class and that means my assessment notebook is fat... it is overflowing with papers. When a child sits down it takes me a good 3 minutes to get to their section of the notebook and then their page....and of course I have to locate the correct pen color...right? If you teach little ones I am sure you do the same, we color code so we know which trimester or quarter a child learned that sound or skill.
Ain't nobody got time for that. Seriously.
My other favorite was getting all the way home and realizing I didn't bring the notebook with me when I wanted to work on report cards or looking at data. Even worse would be if the thing didn't make it back to the classroom.
I triple heart ESGI.
It is all online and I can access it from home or school.
I can call a kid over and click click I am ready to assess.
When I first read about this I thought I am sure it is nice, but does it really cut down on my assessment time....and the answer is YES it does... by a lot!
Ok so a kid comes over and I have a screen that looks like this:
And away we go... next thing you know we are done and I just click to the next one. I usually have the kiddos stand...they seem to prefer it. If they want to sit, no problem... but they wiggle around, standing and answering my questions. It works well for us.
So when I have finished assessing that child the above is what I see. A nice organized summary of it all. Mind you this is just the "pre-reading" section. There would be more data if I clicked on the tabs on the top.
The tab you see that says "Kinder Report Card" is one that I created to match my district's exact specifications for certain things like sight words. The other categories are ones that were pre made by ESGI. You can mix and match.....use what they have already done and then customize your own when needed.
I would like to talk to you about the column to the right.... it's a gold mine!
First on the list "Class Totals Report" Here is a sample of that:
On the far left you would see the student names, but I can't share that and some of these are just made up little people for the purpose of sharing with you. It shows you the child's baseline score {B} in blue and then in green is the most recent assessment. These are the same since I have only assessed them once at this point. And I am sorry that picture is hard to see here.... on ESGI it isn't an issue and you can print it- or send the data directly into an Excel document.
As I begin the adventure of "Assessments Round 2" I will be able to see what they started the year with and their current score at the same time. That is great when writing report cards or talking on the phone with a parent.
Moving on down on the list of features....we have Bar Graph Analysis:
So by looking at this quickly I can see that 12 is the least known number in my classroom...and I am pretty sure that was the case last year. Hmmm.... note to self: teach twelve better :)
Clearly the number 12 is haunting me because apparently 12 kids recognize the numeral 12. Whereas 18 kids recognize 20.
But can we please talk about how handy this chart is?
Next up "Test Results Letter"
You can click and print and there will be a complete letter for parents that has specific information about their child. This is great for the times you assess, but aren't sending home a report card. This is like a mini report card.
The next button says "Print Flash Cards"
And once again at the click of a button I can have flashcards created specific to that particular student. These are great to send home!
"Print Pie Charts" does just that!
It will print the pie charts in a "Send home" or add to my assessment binder version. Here is what I got for my pretend student:
Last up "View Untested Students" is maybe my favorite. Just click and it tells me who I need to test. Hallelujah.... however you spell that... I can't think because I am so excited about this feature.
You know how a child will be absent and you don't assess them and write it on a post it note to do later that ends up who knows where and you sit down to work on their report card and think....oh yeah... I haven't done theirs yet...then you want to scream....right?
I just get excited talking about this because ESGI has made my life so much easier. I may not be the most organized human- but I think even this human.....whoever you are... would find ESGI a welcoming surprise in their life.
If you click the image below you can watch some videos of teachers using the program to make it make more sense for you.
Good luck! I wish you could ALL win because every kindergarten teacher needs this!!!!!
Here's the deal- if you have already signed up for ESGI you can renew yours for $40 off using the code B7722 when your go through the renewal steps. And if you have a free trial going on already use the same code for $40 off!
Those of you who are brand new to all of this.... please enter below. You need to GO HERE to get that trial set up as part of your entry below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
1
Last year I learned about ESGI and that has literally saved my assessment life.
Spoiler Alert..... There is a HUGE giveaway for a full year's subscription to ESGI at the end of this post!
I have 26 kids in my class and that means my assessment notebook is fat... it is overflowing with papers. When a child sits down it takes me a good 3 minutes to get to their section of the notebook and then their page....and of course I have to locate the correct pen color...right? If you teach little ones I am sure you do the same, we color code so we know which trimester or quarter a child learned that sound or skill.
Ain't nobody got time for that. Seriously.
My other favorite was getting all the way home and realizing I didn't bring the notebook with me when I wanted to work on report cards or looking at data. Even worse would be if the thing didn't make it back to the classroom.
I triple heart ESGI.
It is all online and I can access it from home or school.
I can call a kid over and click click I am ready to assess.
When I first read about this I thought I am sure it is nice, but does it really cut down on my assessment time....and the answer is YES it does... by a lot!
Ok so a kid comes over and I have a screen that looks like this:
So when I have finished assessing that child the above is what I see. A nice organized summary of it all. Mind you this is just the "pre-reading" section. There would be more data if I clicked on the tabs on the top.
The tab you see that says "Kinder Report Card" is one that I created to match my district's exact specifications for certain things like sight words. The other categories are ones that were pre made by ESGI. You can mix and match.....use what they have already done and then customize your own when needed.
I would like to talk to you about the column to the right.... it's a gold mine!
First on the list "Class Totals Report" Here is a sample of that:
On the far left you would see the student names, but I can't share that and some of these are just made up little people for the purpose of sharing with you. It shows you the child's baseline score {B} in blue and then in green is the most recent assessment. These are the same since I have only assessed them once at this point. And I am sorry that picture is hard to see here.... on ESGI it isn't an issue and you can print it- or send the data directly into an Excel document.
As I begin the adventure of "Assessments Round 2" I will be able to see what they started the year with and their current score at the same time. That is great when writing report cards or talking on the phone with a parent.
Moving on down on the list of features....we have Bar Graph Analysis:
Clearly the number 12 is haunting me because apparently 12 kids recognize the numeral 12. Whereas 18 kids recognize 20.
But can we please talk about how handy this chart is?
Next up "Test Results Letter"
You can click and print and there will be a complete letter for parents that has specific information about their child. This is great for the times you assess, but aren't sending home a report card. This is like a mini report card.
The next button says "Print Flash Cards"
And once again at the click of a button I can have flashcards created specific to that particular student. These are great to send home!
"Print Pie Charts" does just that!
It will print the pie charts in a "Send home" or add to my assessment binder version. Here is what I got for my pretend student:
Last up "View Untested Students" is maybe my favorite. Just click and it tells me who I need to test. Hallelujah.... however you spell that... I can't think because I am so excited about this feature.
You know how a child will be absent and you don't assess them and write it on a post it note to do later that ends up who knows where and you sit down to work on their report card and think....oh yeah... I haven't done theirs yet...then you want to scream....right?
I just get excited talking about this because ESGI has made my life so much easier. I may not be the most organized human- but I think even this human.....whoever you are... would find ESGI a welcoming surprise in their life.
I am so excited to be teaming up with ESGI for a GIVEAWAY! Yes, a giveaway for a free year subscription to a new user!
And here is the best part.... everyone can win even if you don't end up being the winner winner.... because first time users to ESGI who use the code B7722 can get $40 off! Yep, a full year of ESGI wonderful-ness for just $159 {instead of $199}
Good luck! I wish you could ALL win because every kindergarten teacher needs this!!!!!
Here's the deal- if you have already signed up for ESGI you can renew yours for $40 off using the code B7722 when your go through the renewal steps. And if you have a free trial going on already use the same code for $40 off!
Those of you who are brand new to all of this.... please enter below. You need to GO HERE to get that trial set up as part of your entry below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
