Lauren Cullen
Staff Writer

Eileen Mayo, a new student support teacher to Westford Academy, says she isn’t new to the position. “Yes, many years,” she adds, describing how long she has been a student support teacher.

Mayo knew from her freshman year in high school that she wanted to go into the special education field. She attended high school in Tewksbury.

“In Tewksbury, we were on triple sessions. I did not have to be in school until noon so in the morning I had all this time with nothing to do,” said Mayo.

That’s when a teacher approached her and asked if Mayo would like to volunteer in the schools. She tried volunteering in the resource room, as it was called many years ago, and loved it.

After high school, Mayo attended Westfield State College for an undergraduate degree in Special Education and Elementary Education.

“When I went to Westfield, every semester you had to try a different type of Special Education setting,” she said.

Some of those settings that Mayo worked in included working with the visually impaired, hearing impaired, and even working with the institutionalized special needs adults for a semester.

Mayo’s job at WA entails several different things. “Every day it could be different,” she said,referring to the student support classroom.

Everyday, Mayo works one-on-one with kids, helps them create strategies compensate for their learning disabilities. She also goes into the classes with students, and works with the classroom teachers to make modifications so the students can access the information presented in the classroom based on their individual needs.

One particular thing Mayo says she does enjoy is working with the kids. She says the least enjoyable part of her job is the paperwork.

“I think that sometimes we are so legally bound by the paperwork that it doesn’t give us the time to work with the students,” Mayo said.

Mayo says the most challenging parts of her job so far are due to the fact that she is new to WA and needs to learn  the WA way doing things.

“There are  little ways schools are different, and making sure everything’s done in the Westford way,” she said.

Outside of WA, Mayo spends her time with her granddaughter, sewing for charity, and just hanging out with friends.

“I tell everyone that I am very impressed with the level of respect here. Respect of students to students, students to teachers,  teachers to students, and administration to everyone. It’s very impressive. I think it makes for a great learning environment,” Mayo said.