About Keats Kennelly
Mx. Keats Elliot Kennelly has worked in a variety of libraries for 11 years. After starting their career in university libraries with collection management, then transitioning to working in public libraries, nationally recognized research libraries, and being the head of a university library, Mx. Kennelly decided to become a school librarian in order to teach children literacy and information literacy at an earlier age. Mx. Kennelly is passionate about literacy and information literacy. They think it is these two major skillsets that underlie the work done in every subject.
Mx. Kennelly has lived their life in motion, moving from one coast of the United States to the other (but nowhere in between) roughly every two years until they were 16. At that point, their parents finally settled in Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Just after that final move, Mx. Kennelly started college at Northern Virginia Community College, as she was only 16 and it was felt too young to move away from home. Mx. Kennelly would go on to finish their college education at George Mason University, with a stint at St. Catherine's College, Oxford University in Oxford, England, in 2010.
Mx. Kennelly then went to The Catholic University of America to start their work in the university's library and to complete a graduate degree, a Master's of Science in Library and Information Science, finishing in 2012. Just after graduation, they were able to obtain two jobs, one at Thomas Balch Library, a local, public history and genealogy research library in Leesburg, Virginia, and the other as a temporary writer for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Though juggling two jobs was not ideal, Mx. Kennelly kept both in order to gain experience as a writer, which is their passion, and within their field in libraries. Mx. Kennelly would eventually go on to work in other public libraries and another history and genealogy library at the national level at the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) before turning her career towards educational institutions.
In 2016, Mx. Kennelly moved to Miami and because the head of a university library there. It was during this time they realized the ever widening gaps in equitable education. Mx. Kennelly saw students who worked hard and meant well but were ill equipped for collegiate life. They eventually felt that their skills might better serve students who had yet to get to college. It seemed that students needed literacy and information literacy skills before they matriculated to college so as not to reach the crisis that was unfolding in front of their eyes.
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It was during the summer of 2017, that Mx. Kennelly moved to Shanghai, China. They would stay in Shanghai for two years. The first year, they were the school wide librarian for a bilingual school covering grade 1-12. It was a challenge to serve as both primary and secondary librarian, in two different libraries within the school, but Mx. Kennelly loved working with the kids and thrived in the environment where they were in constant motion. The second year, Mx. Kennelly moved downtown and began working for a company called Studio Education. They orchestrated the opening and design of libraries across the city at different centers for Studio. Mx. Kennelly loved the challenge of not just figuring out the booklist, book order, logistical software, but it tapped into one of their passions of library architecture. They really enjoyed figuring out how to make small spaces open minds.
It was also at Studio Education that Mx. Kennelly began teaching English literature to young students. They enjoyed six different classes of students ranging from grades 3-8. That was when Mx. Kennelly realized, as much as they loved library work, maybe it was time to transition full-time to a classroom. After opening up numerous libraries, Mx. Kennelly received an offer to go for a job in Beijing that would allow them to open and build a huge library collection at a secondary school, and where it would be possible for them to start working towards becoming a certified teacher.
In 2019, Mx. Kennelly made the move to Beijing, China where they lived until February 2021. During their time in Beijing, Mx. Kennelly was able to grow a collection from zero books on the shelves to thousands of books available for the students. The student body was a completely ESL population, and so much thought and consideration was put into building a large, but more importantly, accessible library collection. They were also an integral part of helping their school get their IB certification for the Diploma program. They proudly led the first cohort of IB DP students in their first literature study in the Fall of 2020.
While working in these various schools in China with students of all ages, Mx. Kennelly realized that the most rewarding part of their day was being in the classroom working with the students. Upon realizing they preferred the classroom to the library, deciding to transition from the school library to the classroom was an easy decision to make.At the end of 2019, Mx. Kennelly decided to undertake Moreland University's (located in Washington, D.C.) teacher certification program to become a certified teacher in secondary English and ESOL. Upon completing that program in December 2020, Mx. Kennelly decided to enter into another Moreland University program to obtain a second master’s degree. Their new degree is a Master's of Education with a concentration in Teaching Multilingual Learners.
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Having recently moved back to the United States, Mx. Kennelly is excited to transition from school librarian to English/ESOL teacher.
In their free time, Mx. Kennelly is an avid reader, of both fiction and nonfiction, and an ardent writer. Their current life goal is to see their fiction work published. Mx. Kennelly has already published some non-fiction works in various places, including in the Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington at Mount Vernon in the United States of America.
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My Latest Projects
IB DP English B Short Story Anthology
To aid the IB DP students in studying for their literature requirements of the Diploma Program, I created a short story anthology for the students. I compiled a list of authors and stories, found author biographies for each author, and compiled study questions to help guide further literary analysis. The anthology is comprised of 21 short stories from around the world spanning from the 1800s until contemporary times.
My leadership project focused on bringing a cross-curricular and collaborative Shakespeare-themed reading week to my school. I worked with all the departments in the Secondary School, with the exception of Math and Chinese who had their own activities planned. I created almost of all the lessons and materials used so that in every subject students were learning either about William Shakespeare's life, work, or how his work influenced the world in the last 500+ years. It was a huge and entertaining success!
keatskennelly@gmail.com | 571-218-2173