LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Lorie Smith was nominated by an anonymous colleague.

It's time for this wonderful educator to receive recognition for her dedicated, competent program innovation and instruction at Williams Heights Elementary School. Her healthy, outwardly-focused work ethic has been taking place for over 12 years within the Ware County School System as both a fourth grade classroom teacher and a gifted resource teacher.

As a parent, you would want your child to experience Mrs. Smith's instruction.  She is not only able to motivate her gifted and talented students, but even parents are energized by her enthusiasm, creativity, and ability to apply higher level thinking skills that relate to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) within the program. You may even walk into one of her lessons related to classical literature, where she effortlessly brings the book characters to life through exciting virtual field trips, clever cooking activities, or unique arts and crafts.

In addition to classroom instruction, Mrs. Smith is the Google Professional Learning Series Facilitator for the Okefenokee Regional Educational Services Agency (RESA) district. She shares the responsibility of being a coach for her school's technology team. If she's not meeting with the tech team after school, she's busy with her role as Google Classroom leader, helping teachers incorporate Google Classroom with the at-home digital students.

Mrs. Smith is not a braggart or complainer, but willingly accepts assignments behind the scenes that are above and beyond her teaching duties.  She is responsible for the publication of the weekly newsletter, The Hawks Herald, as well as the annual yearbook.  Each edition is laid out strategically with the newest, most creative, professional-looking graphics. The end results are always amazing!  Her other writing responsibilities relate to the state's Fair Bear and Young Georgia Author's writing competitions.

Reminders and resources for students and teachers are important for student writing success, and Mrs. Smith is key in making this happen.  In fact, the success of her school's writing scores have benefited from her expertise in creating rigorous, inspirational lessons that foster creative, text-dependent student writing.  Another of the many hats she wears includes district responsibilities.  She is a part of the system-wide writing coordinators team for all elementary schools in Ware County and has participated in writing units for numerous grade levels throughout the system for several years.

One of the most important roles she accepted is serving as Honor's Day coordinator. This is a day that allows staff, parents, and the students to gather and experience year-end pride for accomplishments. Mrs. Smith handles the pressures of the decorations, the program organization, and many other logistics with confidence and grace. She organizes the staff and student body with kindness, joy, humility, and perfectionism. 

"Mrs. Smith is very deserving of this award," said her nominator. "Her teaching expertise, positive attitude, school loyalty, and goals for success make her a LifeChanger. She definitely makes my school, system, community, and this world a better place to work, live, and learn!"