Members of the Communications Committee sat down with teacher Valerie Baartz. Here is Valerie’s story:
Both John and I grew up on the east coast (Baltimore and Philadelphia). John’s job brought us to Chicago in 1998. My education background is in early childhood, but before Charlie was born, I had been working as a corporate event planner and training coordinator. I started back to grad school for my Masters in Library Science in 2006.
We have two children. Charlie is in 5th grade and Heidi is in 3rd grade at North Barrington. We have loved raising our family in Tower Lakes and being able to participate in all the family-friendly activities.
We moved to our first Tower Lakes house on East Lake Shore Dr in 1999. John’s job had us move to Tampa, FL in 2002. We moved back to Tower Lakes in 2005 when Charlie was 5 months old. While we were living in Tampa, we came back to TL for 4th of July and John came back for Men’s Day. We missed Tower Lakes and our friends and once Charlie was born, we knew if we moved back to the Chicago area, that we wanted to be in Tower Lakes.
John and I have taken a spin on the Social Committee. John has served on the TLIA board and I have volunteered on Youth Committee. I currently am on the Communications Committee.
We have enjoyed being able to participate in the Chili Cook Off, Easter Egg Hunt, 4th of July, Family Movie Nights, Progressive Dinner, Lake Clean Up Day and many other TL events over the years. Being able to meet neighbors and connect with people has been a wonderful part of our TL experience.
I completed my Library Science degree in 2009 and began working as a Youth Services Librarian at the Lake Villa District Library. In that position, I was the School Liaison to any K-8 building within the library’s district and had the opportunity to work with teachers, administration, and school librarians. I developed and taught continuing education sessions for teachers and also worked in youth programming providing both early childhood story times and school-age programs.
I changed librarian roles and became the school librarian at Countryside Elementary here in Barrington in 2013. I am starting my third year at Countryside this fall and it seems like time is flying by these days. As the school librarian, I see all students for class every week as well as develop and maintain the school’s library resources and collections. As the education field is advancing in integrating technology into all grade levels, this expands the role of the library and redefines its collections to include a wide-range of digital resources in addition to a traditional print collection.
The most rewarding part of my job is the opportunity to get to know all 400 students individually. That is also the most challenging part of my job. One of my roles as a school librarian is to promote reading and to help each student connect with books that excite them individually and to help each student grow as a reader. Some of my favorite moments are when students come back to say how much they liked a certain book and to ask for another title that is similar. I love being able to help students find their “just right” books and I wish there was more time so I could make sure I’m reaching everyone every week.
Another rewarding challenge is keeping current with the fast moving technology and library advances – librarians follow Twitter, Facebook, Flipboard, blogs, and professional articles to be up to date on the latest authors, illustrators, books, databases, reference resources, Web 2.0 tools, technology integration techniques, education research and best practices, library management, and more. It’s an exciting field. When you picture a stern, “shhh”-ing librarian from decades ago, that librarian doesn’t exist anymore.
Being from the east coast, it’s actually not surprising that I miss my Philly cheesesteaks and New York styled pizza. At least once a year we drive to Philly’s Best (they closed the Evanston location – booooo!) so that I can get an authentic cheesesteak. They import their meat and rolls from Philly daily. I hugged the lady behind the counter when I discovered that they made a real cheesesteak. Yummmm.