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Peggy Barnholt

Peggy Barnholt is the Manager of Special Education and an elementary school special education teacher at Colorado Connections Academy (ColoCA). Ms. Barholt joined the teaching staff at ColoCA in 1998 with over three decades of teaching experience. In 2010, Ms. Barnholt was named the Elementary Online Teacher of the Year, by the Colorado Department of Education.

Our teachers are passionate educators. Here's Ms. Barnholt's story...

“I received my Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern State University of Louisiana with a double major in Elementary and Special Education. For the first three years I taught fourth and fifth grades at a Catholic School, while I went to school at night earning a Master of Arts degree from the University of Denver. After earning my Master’s, I spent 26 years as an elementary special education teacher in Brighton School District: eight years in a self-contained class for students with emotional disabilities and 16 years in a mild/moderate cross-categorical special education resource room. It was a happy coincidence that while I was exploring my options, the ColoCA principal was taking a class taught by my current principal. He encouraged me to look for something other than "same script/different actors" so I went virtual, joining the team at Colorado Connections Academy.

At Colorado Connections Academy I have been a special education resource teacher for grades K-7 and the K-8 teacher for students who are working in our alternative curriculum.  I have been the coordinator for the Student Support Team and am also the Manager of Special Education Services.

When I was 10, I told my mother I wanted to be a teacher. She said, "You don't want to just be a regular teacher; you want to be a special teacher, don't you?"  I said yes and that has been my career path ever since!

I love teaching at ColoCA because I can give one-on-one attention to students and their Learning Coaches. I love teaching at ColoCA because figuring out how to take all my "tricks" and make them virtual keeps me thinking. I love teaching at ColoCA because I work every day with a talented group of educational professionals who are all willing to do whatever it takes for students to succeed.  And I especially love working at ColoCA because we have fun together and they appreciate my sense of humor!”