Heather Chatem is the Learning Specialist at CACO, so she has the wonderful opportunity to interact and work with the students, parents, and teachers in every grade. She believes strongly in building children's opportunities to succeed through motivation, high expectations, and learning how to be PROACTIVE. As well as working with students on academic skills, she also teaches: organization, time management, study skills, test taking strategies, and how to utilize one's strengths.
She grew up in the foothills of Los Angeles, and received her B.A. in psychology from UCLA. She went on to Tucson, Arizona to receive her M.A. in special education and rehabilitation with a specialty in learning disabilities at the University of Arizona. She has been teaching for 15 years, and 12 of those were spent at the Frostig School, an independent school in Pasadena, CA, for students with learning disabilities. At Frostig she was a lead teacher at the Middle School Level, a Master Teacher, in which she helped guide and support new teachers, was a co-researcher of "Effective Strategies to Improve Decoding and Spelling Skills in Poor Readers", and was a contributor to the book "The Six Success Factors for Children with Learning Disabilities: Ready-to-Use Activities to Help Kids with LD Succeed in School and in Life" (2009). From 2000-2011 she was also a board member of the Foothill chapter of CHADD, in which she correspondingly gave various presentations to the community on such things as, "Working Homework", "Executive Skills and Organizational Management", and "Finding Success Attitudes - Learning to Cope".
Heather moved to Bend to be closer to her many family members in Central Oregon as well as to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and wonderful community. She loves hiking, gardening, and reading.
