Bobbie van Schaik-Louis
(Mrs. Louis)
2019-20 is my 11th year at PCE as a Special Education Learning Specialist. WOW - time flies when you're having fun! This is my second career (my first career was Nursing), and I can't think of a better place to be teaching than at PCE!
I was born in California, then lived in Iran and India until middle school. My family moved to Virginia, then to Southern California, then to Central California for high school. I attended San Francisco State University for my BS, Nursing, and then fulfilled my dream of joining Peace Corps. I worked in the Amazon jungle region of Ecuador, and learned Quechua, in addition to Spanish. I returned to San Francisco to work at the University of California Medical Center. I met my husband (still happily married for 32 years) in the Bay Area.
Chris and I moved to Colorado, wanting to raise our kids in a family-centered environment. We have four daughters, and three grandkids. I became interested in learning disabilities as my own kids entered school. I went to Metro State University to earn my licensure in Special Education, and ... here I am!
Outside of school, I love reading, swimming, jogging, and some biking with my husband. The best time of any day is time spent with my family! This summer included a week to the beach in North Carolina, a massive gardening project so that our dog can't continue to eat rocks (!), funs times with grandkids, trips to the zoo and to the Leonard DaVinci museum show, and best of all - some great books and lots of morning coffee with my husband!
I love being a special education teacher. Your kids become my kids; there are truly very few limits to what I'll do in the name of the success and happiness of your child. I believe that as kids get older, there are many strategies to share that will help them be successful in school and in life. Some of those strategies are purely academic, but many are survival strategies (how to skim a reading assignment instead of reading it word for word, how to make an intelligent guess in multiple choice, keeping your eyes on a particular student in class who always seems to know what to do and when to do it...). I strive to get to know my kids on a personal level, including getting to know their siblings at school, their friends in class, and a bit about their home life. This personal investment increases the chances of my/our students wanting to do well for me, and for themselves!
This will be a wonderful school year!
~Bobbie