48 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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Local special ed. teacher wins DOE’s Big Apple Award
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
aacevedo@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Nicole Bellomo is known for developing
a personal relationship with each and
every one of her students at Th omas A.
Edison Career and Technical Education
High School in Jamaica.
Bellomo, who’s taught at Th omas Edison
for 10 years, earned the Department of
Education’s prestigious Big Apple Award
for her exemplary work as a history and
culinary arts teacher in the public school’s
Instructional Support Services (ISS)
department.
Th e winners for the eighth annual
awards were announced as a surprise
during a Zoom call about remote learning
at the end of the school year with
teachers and principals, which included
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza
singing them a congratulatory song.
“It was something I was not expecting,”
Bellomo said. “It was really, really surprising.
And it was pretty awesome.”
Th e Big Apple Awards are a citywide
recognition program that’s open to all
full-time teachers in New York City public
schools. Th e awards are made possible
in part by private support through the
Fund for Public Schools, which provides
classroom grants to all recipients.Teachers
can be nominated by fellow staff members,
students and parents, and then have
an application process that includes an
interview with the school district’s superintendent.
Out of 6,000 nominations this year,
Bellomo was the only Queens teacher
among 19 teachers to receive the award.
Awardees will be Big Apple Fellows,
meaning they will have the opportunity
to meet monthly and serve on Carranza’s
Teacher Advisory Group.
District 28 Superintendent Dr. Tammy
Pete, said Bellomo’s students “are made
to feel like they are contributing to their
communities because they are truly
prepped for the world aft er high school.
Th ese students do not just gain life skills
though, they also gain the confi dence they
need to succeed in the world.”
In Bellomo’s culinary arts class, students
learn the practical skills they need
for everyday life, such as how to shop for
groceries, prepare meals and do laundry.
Fellow co-teacher Jessica Forster
takes students grocery shopping to nearby
stores so they can learn how to create
shopping lists and fi nd what they’re looking
for.
Th ese are necessary skills to build the
confi dence to navigate life aft er high
school, as most of her students won’t go
on to college.
Bellomo also runs the Edison Café,
where her students cook breakfasts and
lunches that teachers and fellow students
can purchase.
“Our goal was to create a program
that would allow our intellectually disabled
students to develop the skills that
they need in the cooking industry and
in the restaurant industry, but also give
them the communication skills that they
would need to succeed aft er high school,”
she said.
Bellomo explained that the Edison Café
allows students to learn more social skills
as they interact with customers as well as
gain money management skills.
Shanique Diaz said her son, Nelson, was
a student at Th omas Edison for fi ve years,
where he attended Bellomo’s culinary arts
class. Diaz said the program taught him
what he needed to adapt his skills into life
outside of school.
“He has developed a passion for the
kitchen at home and likes to help me
cook,” Diaz said. “He knows that it is
very important to learn how to cook
so that he can feed himself and others.
Independently, Nelson likes to make
paninis, quesadillas, sliders, salads, breakfast,
soup, cookies and cakes. As Nelson
continues to develop and grow from what
he has learned, he looks forward to opening
up a family restaurant in the near
future.”
Bellomo contributed support during
the transition to remote learning in
March by participating in the Remote
Learning Committee, advocating for ISS
teachers and students, and serving as an
Academic Intervention Support Teacher
to assist many self-contained students in
a one-on-one setting.
Bellomo said plans for their culinary
arts program for the upcoming school
year were still in the works, as they awaited
the DOE’s much-anticipated guidelines
for the fall. Mayor Bill de Blasio
and Chancellor Carranza announced the
2020-21 school reopening plan amid the
COVID-19 pandemic in the fi rst week of
August, which includes a blended learning
model, socially distanced classrooms,
mandatory masks, widely available testing
and a contact tracing program.
Bellomo anticipates it “might be diffi -
cult” to fi gure out how to instruct their
hands-on and oft en group lessons for
their culinary program with new COVID-
19 social distancing guidelines. DOE policy
already required no more than 15 students
per class, before the pandemic.
In the months following the city’s
schools closures in order to slow the
spread of the virus, Bellomo created a
user-friendly experience for her 13 culinary
arts students by providing audio,
visual and text resources for all the lessons.
Bellomo said her school established a
good schedule to provide live instruction
between teachers and students.
While the culinary arts program presented
a challenge due to its hands-on
nature, Bellomo said they came up with
short video instructions, her co-teacher
recorded videos of them cooking certain
recipes, and gave students assignments
to submit videos of themselves following
recipes.
“But we tried to maintain as much live
communication with them as possible,”
Bellomo said. “Th is population of students
just loves to be in school and they
love to learn.”
Bayside hospital invites community to celebrate 150th anniversary
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
St. Mary’s Healthcare System for
Children in Bayside is inviting the community
to join them as they celebrate
150 years of caring for New York’s kids
through a 30-day fundraising challenge
beginning in September.
Th e challenge will feature a selection of
socially-distant events including: fi tness,
paint nights, Zumba classes, trivia nights
and a virtual walk.
As New York City’s only post-acute
pediatric care facility, located at 29-01
216th St., St. Mary’s treats the city’s most
critically ill and injured children.
Th e hospital was founded in 1870
when the Sisters of St. Mary established
a small, 15-bed hospital in Hell’s Kitchen
to provide free medical care for sick children.
St. Mary’s now cares for thousands
of children each day, both in a 124-bed
inpatient facility and in the community
through family-centered home care
programs.
“We’re proud to carry the same commitment
to loving, personalized care that
our founders had when they established
a free hospital for children in 1870,” said
Dr. Edwin Simpser, St. Mary’s president
and CEO. “We look forward to celebrating
another 150 years of caring for
New York’s children through innovative
approaches to treatment that allow our
children to thrive.”
More than 90 percent of the patients at
St. Mary’s need a level of care that exceeds
what their families are able to aff ord and
what Medicaid covers. All funds raised
will go directly toward supporting programs
and treatment for patients.
Despite extremely limited resources,
St. Mary’s provides innovative therapies
and rehabilitation programs including
art, music and aquatic therapy, a
Locomotor Training Program that provides
rehabilitation to children with spinal
cord injuries, and New York’s only
intensive day patient program specializing
in pediatric feeding and swallowing
disorders.
St. Mary’s also created New York’s fi rst
long-term home care program for children
and young adults with disabilities
and medically complex conditions, New
York’s fi rst center for pediatric respiratory
care and the nation’s fi rst pediatric
palliative care program.
Photo courtesy of Nicole Bellomo
Nicole Bellomo (right) and co-teacher Jessica Forster (left) teach culinary arts at Thomas A. Edison
Career and Technical Education High School in Jamaica.
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