Author Archives

I am a School Library Coordinator for the New York City Department of Education's Department of Library Services. I plan and deliver workshops, provide on-site instructional and program support to school librarians, coordinate programs, administer grants, and am program coordinator for MyLibraryNYC, a program administered with our three public library systems.

• How to Create Information Literacy Habits

  By Leanne Ellis on 05/21/2019 • ( 1 )

  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 ›

• The Joy of Lifelong Reading

  By Leanne Ellis on 01/15/2019 • ( 1 )

  

  New Year’s Resolution fanatics take over New York salad eateries! Not the exact headline, but reports noted that there were record lines at restaurants like Just Salad and Sweetgrass instead of McDonald’s. Eating healthy is a popular resolution. Another one is… Read More ›

• Fun and Facilitation

  By Leanne Ellis on 12/21/2018 • ( 0 )

  

  The wood piece falls from my hand. I pick it up, put it in the clamp, and saw away at the block until the blade slices through the remaining attached fibers and one piece becomes two. I have thirty minutes… Read More ›

• What should our students know?

  By Leanne Ellis on 11/19/2018 • ( 0 )

  

  At the 2018 School Library Journal Summit in Brooklyn, I had the privilege of hearing George Takei talk about his childhood experiences in Japanese-American Internment Camps during World War II. The talk was timed for his forthcoming graphic novel for… Read More ›

• Connecting Students to Inquiry

  By Leanne Ellis on 10/19/2018 • ( 1 )

  My job as a school library coordinator involves supporting librarians in their schools with professional development, collection maintenance, and programming/pedagogical ideas. Recently, I visited a new school librarian who works in one building with thousands of students. (This campus model… Read More ›

• Teaching Information Literacy in a World of Misinformation

  By Leanne Ellis on 09/17/2018 • ( 0 )

  

      By now, all of us have heard the term fake news. It’s become another overused phrase, insidious in how it sticks like a bad smell. Yet its very stickiness is what makes it such a useful rhetoric device…. Read More ›

• Librarians and Student Leadership

  By Leanne Ellis on 07/24/2018 • ( 1 )

  

  Why do we need librarians if students have access to the Internet and their phones? I find my first answer to this question includes the dubious term fake news. Dubious because fake news is rare; biased or misleading news is where… Read More ›