Author Archives

I am a School Library Instructional Coordinator for the New York City Department of Education's Office of Literacy, AIS, and Library Services. I plan and deliver workshops, provide on-site instructional and program support to school librarians, coordinate programs, administer grants, and just started facilitating an online course on Information Literacy for Spring 2019.

• Celebrating Our Library Culture

  By Leanne Ellis on 11/22/2019 • ( 0 )

  

  Culture is an aged word, but one with staying power. And culture describes just about everything: work, school, family, ethnicity, country, fandom, and on and on. People want to know what defines a culture, how to create and promote it,… Read More ›

• Creating Lasting Change, Maybe

  By Leanne Ellis on 10/22/2019 • ( 1 )

  The high school to college gap is like college readiness, one of those realities that implant itself in our minds like fake news or mass incarceration. Unfortunately, these simple-sounding concepts indicate massive, almost unapproachable issues that we talk about but… Read More ›

• Leveraging Reading Influencers

  By Leanne Ellis on 09/25/2019 • ( 2 )

  

  I can’t remember when I first heard the term social media influencer. Probably in the context of a reality star or the latest Internet fad. I think I rolled my eyes when I heard that someone could make a career out… Read More ›

• Providing Quality Inclusive Materials

  By Leanne Ellis on 08/21/2019 • ( 0 )

  It’s easy to get cynical about educational trends because it seems they change as quickly as headlines. Who hasn’t heard the terms: college and career ready, makerspaces, STEAM, 21st-century skills, diversity, equity, digital literacy, etc.? I don’t think any who focus on… Read More ›

• The Changing Winds of Grant Writing

  By Leanne Ellis on 07/24/2019 • ( 0 )

  

  You may think the title of this post is poorly written (and this is a blog about grant writing??), but it is a pun on what grant funders believe is essential. The trend for grants seems to be away from… Read More ›

• Down the Rabbit Hole with Deep Fakes

  By Leanne Ellis on 06/18/2019 • ( 0 )

  Do you know what a deep fake is? A workshop I attended defined a deep fake as “the alteration of images, videos, and audio files with the intent of maliciously deceiving an audience into thinking they are real.” Workshop participants… Read More ›

• How to Create Information Literacy Habits

  By Leanne Ellis on 05/21/2019 • ( 0 )

  Let’s start with a quiz. Select the definition/idea/skill you consider challenging to assess student mastery of: Satire Habitat Pythagorean Theorem Reading Laterally Did you choose option four: reading laterally? Congratulations! Your answer is correct. Now you may think this was… Read More ›

• The Missing Link with Teachers

  By Leanne Ellis on 04/16/2019 • ( 2 )

  How many of us have gotten that sinking feeling during a lesson or presentation that we’ve lost some participants? The dazed or bored look, side conversations, and of course, looking at the phone. You stand there explaining some idea or… Read More ›

• School Library Programs to Build Student Knowledge

  By Leanne Ellis on 03/21/2019 • ( 0 )

  

  My two-year-old son knows his colors. He loves to point to objects in books and outside and shout out the color. He enjoys showing what he knows! He likes to learn new things. Somewhere along the way to adulthood, that… Read More ›

• Canned Lesson Plans: Help or Hindrance?

  By Leanne Ellis on 02/20/2019 • ( 1 )

  

  “Checklist Planning Clipboard To Do.” Pixabay, Pixabay.com, pixabay.com/p-1614702/?no_redirect. Like most aspects of education, standards are never static. Here in New York City, we are in the process of updating our ESIFC (Empire State Information Fluency Continuum) to align with the new… Read More ›