CAT Tracks for June 19, 2014 DO YOU KNOW ELIS?

Well, if you are an Illinois teacher, you should!

Maybe you knew ELIS (I did) by the name ESC.

ESC was the Educator Certification System that governed the certification/recertification of educators in Illinois...where we went online and filled in the CPDUs that we had thrillingly completed until we reached the magic number of 120 (or 80 is you were a "Master" of your craft.) You then paid your $25 and were blessed with another 5 years on your certificate.

Well, that system was replaced as of July 1, 2013 by ELIS, the Educator Licensure Information System. If/When you tried to access ECS, you were directed to ELIS.

Anyway...

Accessing ESC and inputing CPDUs was one of the joys of my life...

...was always front and center in my mind whilst whiling the hours away during another scintillating session...

...I can't wait to get the hell outta here, run home and enter the info on ECS.

What? That's not you? You put things off until tomorrow that you could do today? And tomorrow never comes...until maybe the week prior to the expiration of your certificate (now license?)

Well, if you are the latter...

...TOMORROW is coming soon! Tomorrow is June 30, 2014 (or maybe December 31, 2014, latest!)

Back on May 23rd, CAT Tracks provided you with an IEA advanced warning that changes were afoot come July 1, 2014. (Yep, "tomorrow" was a couple of months away. Damn, now it's less than two weeks...time flies whether you're having fun or not!)

Well, it just so happens that I bumped into my next door neighbor (aka Madame CAT President) yesterday...

...and she informed me that she had attended a workshop on Tuesday at the Regional Office of Education (ROE) on this very subject (and got her some more CPDUs!)

Apparently, some things are still "iffy"...

...one being whether you need to enter your CPDUs by June 30th or whether you will have until December 31st...

...the recommendation being that you do it IMMEDIATELY rather than run the risk of losing credit for hours attended.

So, hey, foretold is forewarned!

If you have taken CPDUs that you have not yet entered into the ELIS system...

...ENTER THEM TODAY, NOT TOMORROW!!! (Hey, since they have canceled the BOE meeting tonight, you've got an extra couple of hours of free time tonight! Get 'er done! :-)

And in conclusion...

Blessedly, I don't gotta do nuthin'...

...as the sign in my downstairs "beer room" says: "What Part of Retired Don't You Understand?"

That's fortunate in that I don't know nuthin' except what I related above (and don't go quoting that!)

But, if you are an active educator in Illinois (or a recently retired one who needs/wants to complete the licensure process in order to be able to substitute for supplemental income,) get cracking!

Now there's a quirk in the law that has always dumbfounded me...

...that a person with a college degree and no teaching experience can obtain a license to substitute teach by signing up and paying a fee, no damn CPDUs required. A person like me, on the other hand, who actually taught for 39 years (even if, as critics might cattily opine, that I taught "one year" 39 times), but allowed his certificate to expire, cannot obtain such a license.

Well, hell, my loss is education's gain I guess!

And, yes, there's even a song for that, sung by Madonna (who attended the preview opening of Christopher Jackson's "Holler If You Hear Me") in the movie version of Evita: Don't cry for me, Catieanea.

It is also my understanding that the "reduction" of required CPDUs for educators possessing a Master's Degree or beyond has ended, is ending, sumthin' sumthin'. (Questions on this - or anything about licensure in Illinois - don't call me, contact ROE!)