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Teacher Quote of the Month...
"I Love ESGI! I teach kindergarten and I was able to use ESGI during the first week of school to assess all of my 29 active students. I wanted to know how many of them came to school knowing letters and sounds and would not have been able to accomplish that much assessment without the help of ESGI. Now I have great information to help me know where my students started from. I also love that ESGI is adaptable to my needs throughtout the year. One of my favorite components is the ability to print a parent-letter and student-specific flash cards."
~Lisa B. Kindergarten Teacher Sutton El. Muncie, IN
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Monthly Tip:
 We usually cover better ways to use ESGI in our monthly tip, but with Halloween right around the corner this seemed very fitting. Have fun! They are spooky and delicious.
"Finger Cookies"
Cookie Ingredients:
I cup butter, softened
I cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons Icing Glue: (see below)
Icing Glue Ingredients:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon water
1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy.
2. Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla extract, mix well.
3. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and beat until completely mixed.
4. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
6. With your hands, roll a heaping tablespoon of dough into a finger shape for each cookie. If the dough gets sticky and hard to work with, put it back in the refrigerator for a little while. Place fingers on an ungreased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.
7. Use a butter knife to make knuckle marks on each finger cookie. Slightly flatten the top of the finger to create a "nail".
8. Bake 20-25 minutes until the fingers are slightly golden. Remove from the oven and let cool. Meanwhile, prepare the Icing Glue. Mix together powdered sugar and water in a small bowl until the consistency is similar to that of paste.
9. Attach almond slice fingernails to the tips of the fingers with icing glue. Let glue dry for about 30 minutes.. |
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A Good Kindergarten Education Adds to More Earning PowerTaken from the National Science Foundation
Recent research has shown that students that learn more in Kindergarten, earn more as adults and are more successful overall. A Harvard economist, John Freidman, showed that students that score in the 60th percentile of the Stanford Achievement Test earned $1000 more per year at the age of 27. Students that do better then the 60th percentile earn over $2000 more. Also, students that do better in Kindergarten are more likely to go to college, own a home by age 28, save for retirement, and less likely to be single parents. "Kindergarten interventions matter a great deal for long-term outcomes," said Friedman.
Friedman and colleagues from Harvard, Northwestern University, and University of California, Berkeley, used a well-known education experiment conducted in Tennessee as a starting point to measure adult outcomes of early childhood learning. In the mid-
1980s, the Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) project placed students in classes of different size to determine how class size affects student learning. Results showed that students in smaller classes learn more and have greater academic success. This new study, funded by the National Science Foundation's Division of Social and Economic Sciences, examined adult outcomes of nearly 12,000 students who took part in the original study and who are now 30 years old.
So what does this all really mean? I am sure it validates what you already know - Kindergarten teachers have a huge assignment of their own; preparing kids to become students, teaching them to read, and develop their readiness for the remainder of their education career and life. Although there are many other outside influences that help sculpt a person' s life such as parent involvement, upbringing, socio-economics, and the general ability for some kids to learn and comprehend, it is the Kindergarten teacher that truly takes on the role to introduce kids to education, learning, and collaboration. In our society we tend to put doctors, CEO' s, sports stars, and celebrities on a pedestal. However based on the level of impact on our society, Kindergarten teachers should certainly be on top. Thank you all for everything you do everyday to make our world a better place. You are developing our next generation of leaders, musicians, artists, astronauts, scientists, philanthropists, and teachers!
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ESGI Update:
ESGI is 10 years Old!! (Kind of...)
It was October 5, 2000 and founder Greg Gorman was in his 3rd year of teaching Kindergarten. He was fed up with the paper and pencil checklists for assessment and report card testing. Consumed by the amount of time that was being wasted, he decided to do something about it.
On this date, 10 years ago, he wrote these words on a sticky note " create a better way to replace paper and pencil assessments in my classroom. "He immediately enrolled in some programming classes and dedicated his efforts to developing ESGI. Today thousands of teachers are grateful for Greg' s focused efforts and determination to make ESGI the teachers' favorite application for one-on-one assessment, parent communication, and data analysis. |
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Resource Spotlight:
National Teacher Registry
With tough economic times, this is a tool that can help you get the items you need for your classroom. The National Teacher Registry is free and works for both public and private schools. Teachers create their own individual registry online. All the teacher has to do is send some sort of notice to the parents/PTO/PTA inviting them to view the registry. If nothing else, it's better than getting another coffee mug with an apple for a Holiday Gift!
www.NationalTeacherRegistry.com
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 Announcements
ESGI Adds Key New Team Members:
Several months ago we were happy to spotlight Rochelle Pokorny who has been with ESGI since the start. Nov 8th marks another big step in our business as we add two new employees to help us continue our progress. We are happy to announce the addition of Diane Healy and Roxanne Lutz.
Diane comes to us with several years of technical IT experience, programming, and technical service. She is a self proclaimed IT chick with a personality! She will be handling customer service issues as well as technical support.
Roxanne Lutz has spent her professional career in Marketing. Her high energy and bubbly personality is a perfect fit for the ESGI team. She will be handling sales and marketing. Please welcome both new members to our team. You will soon meet them via emails or at a conference. |
Upcoming Events:
ESGI will be at the Indiana Kindergarten Conference put on by SDE Nov 29 - 30th in Indianapolis, IN. This is the first time we have displayed at an Indiana Conference. We are excited to do demonstrations and share ESGI with all of the Indiana teachers that attend. Come see us if you can!
We just returned from the KToT (Kindergarten Teachers of Texas) where we were able to address a crowd of 400 and display ESGI on the main stage. Dallas was a great city to demonstrate ESGI and we appreciate the continued support of the KToT group! Also it was wonderful seeing all of the teachers and other vendors. |
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