Special Education Teacher Colleen Mills is looking forward to helping students grow and achieve in her first year at Algonquin.

In 2022, Mills graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) with an undergraduate license in moderate disabilities. While at UMass, she did student teaching with grades three and four moderate behavioral students and kindergarteners. After graduating, Mills pursued her master’s degree at Simmons University and worked in the residential program on the intensive treatment team at the New England Center for Children, a school and research center for students with severe autism, for three years until she graduated in May 2025.

Mills’ passion for special education teaching began in her junior year of high school, where she entered a program that allowed her to intern in the special education department, serving as a student aid. Helping students in special education brought her joy, so she started applying to schools specifically for special education programs.

“It brought me so much joy seeing their growths [and] their little achievements,” Mills said. “It felt really rewarding to work with them.”

When it comes to her students, Mills emphasizes the importance of inclusion and respect, striving to build their confidence and avoid insecurities about needing more support.

“Everyone has strengths and weaknesses,” Mills said. “Just because you have a weakness doesn’t mean that someday it can’t be a strength.”

Throughout her teaching experience, Mills has practiced one incredibly crucial skill: patience. Although it takes a lot of effort to find ways to meet the needs of a variety of students, it is an aspect of Mills’ job that she loves the most.

“I know that every student I’ve ever worked with is insanely different and that’s kind of the joy in it,” Mills said.

Student Services department head Caroline Flynn appreciates Mills’ enthusiasm about her new position and working with students.

“She has a really strong desire to develop strategies to help her students,” Flynn said. “That desire is something you can’t instill in people.”

While Flynn praises Mills’ excitement and passion, she also admires her decorating skills and plans to pass on the role of setting up Halloween decorations to her in the future.

“She already has the best decorated classroom,” Flynn said. “It’s very visual and everything you could possibly want or need or can borrow is in that room.”

Going forward, Mills wants to continue helping her students learn and grow.

“I’ve found it really rewarding to see them succeed and see them say ‘I can’t’ into ‘I can,’” Mills said. I like helping students see their potential.”