POB & THE NASSAU TRACT TEACHER CENTER
The Nassau TRACT Teacher Center is a professional development resource center serving teachers, parents, administrators, students and community members in Nassau County by offering courses and workshops for graduate and in-service credit as well as varied opportunities for professional growth for teachers, and others involved in the educative process. Many of our offerings are specifically designed to include teachers, parents, and community residents, thereby creating a closer relationship between the school curriculum and the broader community, including the world of work, This partnership brings aspects of the community into the school as well as using community sites as extensions of the classroom. Our conferences provide parents with topical issues related to education, parenting skills and the school-to-work transition. The center provides a supportive, non-threatening, responsive environment where teachers may come to work on materials or projects for their classroom and develop and strengthen their technology skills. In so doing, the center helps to promote professionalism, foster collegiality among teachers and improve the school as a workplace.
During the 1997-98 academic year, the Nassau TRACT Teacher Center, which is housed at Mineola High School, will serve the professional development needs of more than 3,000 teachers serving almost 40,000 students in the public and non-public schools of the member districts - Mineola, Sewanhaka, West Hempstead, Garden City, Oyster Bay, Locust Valley, Plainview, Carle Place, Hewlett-Woodmere, Nassau BOCES, and East Rockaway.
Nassau TRACT is in frequent communication with its membership through its various written resources "Back on TRACT" - the Center's newsletter; Course Offerings announcing TRACT's upcoming workshops and courses; EMAIL; as well as flyers and posters which are posted throughout districts and in the community. In addition, TRACT members are encouraged to come to the Center and utilize the "hands on" resources, i.e. (computers, a computer scanner, camcorder, quick take camera, VCR laser disc player, Ellison letter machine, button maker, laminator, modems), Some of these resources can be "checked out" thus allowing teachers to make maximum use of them. Services and activities such as networking sessions, meeting with consultants and teleconferencing round out TRACT's commitment to be a full service center.
The Nassau TRACT Center is governed by a 23 member Policy Board. The majority of the Board are teachers and include two teacher representatives from each member school district, one administrator from the local educational agency (LEA), one representative from non-public schools, as well as parent, higher education and local business and industry representatives. The Board strives to identify the needs of the educational community, develop programs to meet their needs, provide a means of sharing ideas and serve as a resource for its constituency, teachers, parents, student, administrators and community leaders.
The mission of the Nassau TRACT Center is to enable its members to enhance their professional skills and thereby enhance the educational opportunities of their students. The goals of the Center are to:
Nassau TRACT Teacher Center is located at 10 Armstrong Rd. Mineola, phone 248-7760.