DOME Newsletter
MAY 2025
DEPARTMENT NEWS
Now Hiring!
We are seeking teachers for the following positions:
Seal of Biliteracy Presentation Day
Our 3rd annual district-wide Seal of Biliteracy Presentation Day a huge success! Approximately 80 student presentations took place in 14 languages. This day could not be possible without the countless number of people to support this day.
Arcadia Italian teacher, Melissa Stio, shared this sweet poem with her students for encouragement:
’Twas the night before Seal Day, and all through the land,
Students were pacing with flashcards in hand.
Their slides were all loaded, rehearsed with great care,
In hopes that fluency soon would be there.
Their verbs were all swirling like thoughts in a storm,
Conjugations and accents refusing to form.
They whispered and muttered and practiced with dread,
While visions of panelists danced in their head.
Then suddenly, courage began to appear,
They'd studied for months—there was nothing to fear.
With deep breaths and pride, they’d rise to the call,
And show they could speak, read, and write it all!!!!!.
Please enjoy this video to commemorate the day: NYSSB Presentation Video 2025
Bilingual Program Updates
The Bilingual Program has been seeing FABULOUS growth. We are seeing translanguaging amongst our students and confidence and ability skyrocket in our teachers. We have been busy recruiting for our 1st grade rollout. Thanks to current parents sharing the amazing results they are seeing in their own kindergartners, we are seeing more new parents wanting to give their children this amazing opportunity.
Click HERE for More Info about the Bilingual Program!
As part of our Latino Literacy Night, we had a Bilingual Program Informational Night that was very well attended.
IN THE NEWS
Congratulations Annamaria!
From Peter Johnson:
I thought I'd share that one of our newly elected board members - Annamaria Falzarano - was interviewed on WXXI's Connections today. I think it is very cool that we are going to have a board member who understands our work and English language learners so well. (For those newer to Greece, Annamaria was Shawnna's predecessor - her title at the time was Director of World Languages which included ENL.) Here's the link to the stream of the interview.
WORLD LANGUAGES NEWS
Teacher Prep for AAPPL Exam
This document contains the most important info for teachers administering the AAPPL this year.
Teacher Prep for AAPPL ExamUse Processing Questions to Superpower your Language Classes
A processing question is a question that helps the listener process language and information. In other words, it helps students take in an idea and also make sense of the language being used to communicate the idea.
WL Professional Learning
Practical & Comprehensible Virtual Conference
Reconnect with the JOY the power of communicative teaching! Practical & Comprehensible is a Free Virtual Conference for Busy World Language teachers to learn about comprehensible input.
Thanks to Kim Redder for sharing!
WL Resources
Less Commonly Taught Language Downloadable Online Open Resources
- LCTL DOORs are Downloadable Online Open Resources that ‘open doors’ for language instructors by providing them with instructional activities that they can easily transform to use in their classroom.
- These materials have been written in English to create maximum accessibility and usability. Users of this site will take the materials as written as a starting point and transform them to be linguistically and culturally relevant for the target language.
- The materials are licensed under a Creative Commons-Attribution-NonCommercial License (CC-BY-NC 4.0).
- To use these materials, copy and paste them into a Word document or Google Doc.
ENL NEWS
NYSESLAT Info
As a reminder, these slides have all the info needed for NYSESLAT packing, scoring and shipping.
Reminder of the Regents accommodations planning chart:
- The purpose of the planning chart is to provide a place to plan, record and communicate accommodations for ELLs.
- This chart should be completed collaboratively by ENL teachers and testing coordinators.
- Since all ELLs are entitled to the same accommodations, this process will ensure there is a plan in place for individual students and that everyone is aware of the plan.
- Regents Accommodations Chart
Newcomer Newsletter
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!
ENL Professional Learning
Mid-West RBERN Professional Learning
Understanding the History and Culture of Ukraine to Provide Support for Ukrainian Refugee Students & Families
THURSDAY | MAY 29, 2025 | 6:30PM – 8PM
- Review the current situation related to Ukrainian families coming into the United States as
- immigrants and refugees
- Share the history and geography of Ukraine
- Provide information on the educational system in Ukraine, and experiences of Ukrainian immigrants and refugees
ENL Resources
Summer Reading Tracker in 15 Languages!
Lexikeet created the ultimate summer reading tracker for your students' ticket to a summer full of reading adventures! This free, multilingual printable tracker is perfect for children of all ages and a great way to keep the learning going strong during the break.
The tracker comes with easy-to-follow instructions so parents, including those who don’t speak English, can help their kids stay on top of their reading goals and stick to their school's program.
Available in Fifteen Languages: English, Arabic, Burmese, Dari, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Pashto, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Ukrainian and Vietnamese
BOCES 2 Resource Guides
Click the images below for new resource guides from BOCES School Library Services. They include curated eBooks, databases and streaming videos available to students and staff In the BOCES 2 region
MULTILINGUAL FAMILY NEWS
Family Program Photos
Click on the slides below for a glimpse of our family programs this year!
SPOTLIGHTS
Staff Spotlight: Gigi Deleon, Secretary, Department of Multilingual Ed
Preferred name: Gigi
How long have you been working in education and/or in Greece? Working with GCSD is my first time working in education.
What is something that you like about your job? I love that I can be part of a department that supports cultural backgrounds and languages and have programs that supports families and students to be able to navigate in a new environment, making them feel welcome by providing opportunity to feel included and become academically successful.
What do you like to do outside of work? I have a micro-bakery business, when I am not in the office I am baking away, but if I am not baking, during the summer months, I love spending time in my garden with my children and having get togethers with friends and family. I love to host a good cookout or dinner party. Holidays are always at my house.
Tell us about your family. I am all about family and I am obsessed with mine. I am married to my wonderful husband Jose and together we have four beautiful and awesome boys. We also have the cutest fur baby(Dog) named Emmett.
What is one thing about you that others might not know? Something about me that others might not know would be my Military background. I am a United States Marine Corps Sergeant veteran. I lived In Japan for three of my enlisted years and my oldest boy was born in Japan.
What is your favorite place or travel or a place you would like to go? My favorite place to travel would always be my homeland Puerto Rico. I have family there still and every time I go I feel at home. I always have the best time.
CELEBRATIONS
Department Social
Department Social: Join us at Orien’s Cafe (1100 Long Pond Road) on 6/6 from 2:30-4:30pm for our final gathering of the year.
Congrats to Ida Wilder for the Monroe County Youth Advocate Award!
Congrats to Melissa Stio for presenting at NYSAFLT ROC!
CONTACTS
Staff Directory:
Shawnna Sweet, Director of Multilingual Education - shawnna.sweet@greececsd.org
Ashley Dame-Marino, Assistant Director of ENL - Ashley.Dame-Marino@greececsd.org
Tracie Fishman, TOSA for ENL- 5tracie.fishman@greececsd.org
Rachel Hakes, TOSA for World Languages - rachel.hakes@greececsd.org
Gigi Deleon, Clerical Support, gregoria.deleon@greececsd.org







