On Sunday, I attended a web conference. I sat in my husband's recliner while my children shouted at the computer screen while Dr. Abernathy spoke to us that had logged in. Thankfully, I don't have a web cam or speaker on my old DELL Inspiron 1501 so no one else had to hear them yell either. I took from this web conference a lot of valuable information. Dr. Abernathy was very helpful; as was having a conversation with people that are doing the same work you are doing! There are many benefits to completing an online degree, one of them is not the loss of being able to pick your professors brain. But I digress....
The most important thing I took away from this web conference was information on what ILD stands for; which by the way is Instructional Leadership Development. What is this you might ask? ILD is a course that has a primary audience of future administrators. It is meant to teach you how to gain skills to facilitate continuous campus improvement. Topics included are data-driven decision making, curriculum, instruction, assessment, developmental supervision, professional development, community partnerships/communication, organizational management, and evaluation. Doesn't that sound like so much fun? Don't you want to spend 36 of your long awaited summer vacation hours attending this in a cold education service center building??? This 36 hour course can be completed face to face or online. The cost ranges from $450-$600. Seriously? We are teachers! That's almost 3 trips to the grocery store! Oh well, there is nothing I can do about it because ILD is a requirement in order to become a certified principal in the great State of Texas. I guess I'll be shelling out this money sooner than later. If you have a need to find out information about ILD, I have provided you below with the information I found online at the Region IV ESC website.
http://www.escweb.net/tx_esc_04/catalog/event.aspx?s=7b9fdb7f-04de-4413-a63c-69393b0802d6&keywords=ILD&audience=&subject=&creditType=&start=&end=&pid=&eventId=2552&guid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
