Two OUSD Teachers Honored at
Celebrating Success for English Learners Awards

ORANGE, CA — May 15, 2015 —Teachers Rochelle Greenwald and Irini Salamah represented Orange Unified School District last night at the Orange County Department of Education’s 3nd Annual Celebrating Success for English Learners awards celebration.

Greenwald and Salamah each received a Certificate of Award for significant contributions in promoting success for English Language Learners.

Rochelle Greenwald, teacher and Project GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) Facilitator at Lampson Elementary School, consistently challenges her English learners (ELs) to complete rigorous work and expand their language skills. She is a leader amongst her staff and actively promotes Project GLAD strategies. Greenwald executed a unique full-day staff development model, working with site teachers in the morning to review specific Project GLAD strategies and welcoming them into her classroom in the afternoon to observe Project GLAD strategies in action. She followed up with teachers by collecting work samples and creating a slide show. Later in the year Greenwald kept Project GLAD alive by holding an internet 'scavenger hunt', asking teachers to send work samples that demonstrated specific GLAD strategies in action in their own classrooms. She is an outstanding catalyst among her peers for supporting English learners through rigorous content. The fruits of her labor are highly evident in classrooms across the school.

Irini Salamah is a teacher and English Learner Advisor for two schools: Community Day School 7-12 and Home School K-12. She has taken on the challenge of being the EL Advisor with diligence and unbelievable pride. After initial assessments at the beginning of the year, Salamah noticed that many English learners struggled with vocabulary and reading comprehension and began to tutor them during her prep period in order to work on these skills. Salamah continues to regularly progress monitors EL students and provides tutoring based on these assessments. She also trains and supports teachers on English learner strategies.

Each district in Orange County had the opportunity to nominate two exceptional individuals who meet the criteria of excellence in promoting success for English Language Learners to be honored at Celebrating Success for English Learners. The theme of this year’s event was “Soaring to New Heights”.