Our Background

In 1978, the Federal Government passed legislation to establish teacher centers that would provide staff development responsive to participant's expressed needs. The federal legislation ended in 1982. New York State passed Teacher Center legislation in 1984. (Commissioner's Regulations - Part 81 and Education Law 316) The state Teacher Center grant was modeled on the Federal grant but it added computer training as part of the funding requirement. The Orleans-Niagara Teacher Resource and Computer Training (ONTRaCT) Center has been in operation since 1984 under a grant from the New York State Legislature. In 1984, there were 44 Teacher Centers in NYS. Today (2006-07) there are 127 with more applications being processed!

A policy board composed of teachers and leadership staff, as well as representatives from higher education, the business community, and parents directs the ONTRaCT Center. At the ONTRaCT Center, the programs are designed in response to requests from the 2-county teaching staffs in both public and non-public schools, thus allowing all teachers to become a major force in their own professional development. The ultimate goal is the improvement of instruction for all students in the Orleans-Niagara community.

What do Teacher Centers stand for?
Teacher Centers purport to break teacher isolation by creating a collegial place. Through the Center, teacher leadership has established input into program and activities, teachers facilitating and teaching workshops, teachers being awarded mini-grants to design and implement their own classroom projects, teachers serving on the Policy Board to set policy for the Center, and a Policy Board, which, by legislation, is made up of 51% teachers.

Today, the ONTRaCT Center is conducts staff development workshops after school, on Saturdays, and during the summer. These workshops include, but are not limited to, classes for the new teacher, workshops related to the new NYS Standards and Assessments, and classroom technology integration workshops utilizing our portable Dell computer lab.
NYS Teacher Centers Logo
What was written in the Schuyler-Chemung-Tioga/Corning Teacher Center publication, Bell Ringers, Fall 1989, remains true today:
All of us at the Center have a vision about centering that energizes and nurtures us and keeps us going. We see the Center as a place to make connections-professional, intellectual, and personal, a place of resources-tangible and intangible, a place to take risks, to validate ourselves and each other as professionals who have impact. Continual professional growth remains the goal of the Teacher Center. The Teacher Center responds to the "voice of the teacher"-but only if you keep the conversation going!

.. home .. contact us .. programs .. resources .. mini-grants .. writing contest .. newsletters .. background .. mission ..