Give me an E.....S.....G......I & Daily 5

I just have to share about some awesome assessment software I have been trying these last few days.  It is called ESGI - Educational Software for Guided Instruction.  It is a web based assessment program that allows you to quickly and easily asses your children.  There are remade assessments already loaded or you can make your own assessments - I have not tried that because the preloaded ones were just what I needed - letter name (capital/lowercase) letter sounds, initial sounds, rhyming, number identification, shapes, patterning, coin identification, cvc words...the list goes on and on!  I have been testing for 2 days and I am 3/4 of the way done.  What I love about it is that I can even assess on the go!  I just take my iPad and we are good to go!!  The kids think it is big fun too...especially with the iPad.  I can't wait to finish and print out the parent results letters, and even individualized flash cards for each of my students.  Our county uses Dibels as our main assessment tool, but I like having this so I know exactly what letters they don't know, not just how many they can name in a minute!!  I am excited to use this to help guide and individualize my instruction as much as possible.  

So, we have made it to 6 minutes for Read to Self which I am super excited about!!!  We are so close to me being able to actually pull a short 10 minute small group!!!  They get so excited when I color in their stamina graph.  I had a good giggle to myself today when I had some kids model the wrong way to Read to Self.  This one little girl was having a hard time working the whole time and was spending a lot of time looking everywhere but her book...so I immediately rang my chimes and brought everyone back to the carpet.  I asked this same little girl, who by the way is probably the quietest kid I have, to model Read to Self the wrong way.  I was a little unsure if she would really get into it and do the "wrong" thing.... but she SOOOOOO did!  It was so cute.  She totally copied the way I did it when I introduced Read to Self.  I sometimes forget that some of my kids actually pay attention and remember what we talk about!!  

O.K - before I go, I have to make a confession...I have a problem...My name is Ashley and I am a cronic classroom re-arranger!  There I said it!!  I feel better.  This afternoon, after my hubby came by to pick Whitnee up for piano lessons, I re-arranged my entire room in less than an hour!!  I always do it in the late afternoon, so no one sees  -  although everyone at school is pretty used to my addiction.  :)  I never know how the room arrangement is going to work in real life, and if it doesn't work, I can't stand it - so after a week and a half in my room with real life kids - all I can say, is that it was NOT working for me!  Traffic areas were congested, seating was not working for me, and I just felt like there was a lot of wasted space... I could go one and on!! :)  I always like seeing the kids reactions the next day too!! :)  Eventually they get used to the room moving around and just smile and say "You did it again!!"  Please tell me I'm not the only classroom re-arranger around here??  I would love to hear from you and we might could start our own support group!! LOL