Hello there! My name is Leigh (like “Lee”) Collazo, and I love being a librarian and teacher!
I am a Texas-certified PreK-12 school librarian and secondary English teacher. Since 2001, I’ve served school communities at all grade levels, both in Texas and in Shanghai and Suzhou, China. We lived in China for six years and hoped to stay there for at least another year. Unfortunately, when we came to Mexico for Chinese New Year vacation in January 2020, we ended up unable to return to China for months due to the pandemic. China has since opened its borders, but we fell in love with Mexico and decided we would not return to China. It’s been almost two years since all that happened, and we are enjoying Mexico as official residents!
In China, I served as Head Librarian and Secondary School Librarian at two different private international schools. Both schools were very different from one another, and both were awesome learning experiences. Serving a community of “third culture” kids from 55 different countries and languages was challenging, rewarding, and fun! If you’ve ever considered teaching or librarian-ing internationally, I encourage you to check into it! I am happy to help point you in the right direction and answer any questions you might have–feel free to send me a message!
Prior to my China schools, I was a middle school librarian in Texas. I opened three brand-new school libraries in the Fort Worth area: two elementaries and one middle school. I presented booktalks at our regional service center in Texas (LOVE that!) and at several library PD events in Shanghai. I was also a book reviewer for School Library Journal from 2012-2017. Before becoming a librarian, I taught 7th grade English and Literature in Fort Worth for three years.
Librarians have the best job in the school, and boy, do we know it!