Teacher Tuesday: The Gift of a Smile

I love this saying:

“A laugh is a smile that bursts.”

Each word is simple, yet so uplifting and energetic when strung together in this sentence. I smile every time I think about it.

So if a laugh is a smile that bursts, what is a smile?  And I’m not talking about the kind of smile that’s just a social nicety or expectation – like the kind I paste on my lips when someone is holding a camera in front of my face. I’m talking about the kind of smile that starts in your heart and soon bubbles its way up and out. The kind that wrinkles your face, makes your cheeks glow and your eyes crinkle and sparkle. The kind that makes you momentarily forget that you’re self-conscious about the gap in your teeth or that you’re nervous about a Board presentation or that you’re worried because you just overheard your teenage daughter say that she thought nose rings were cool. The kind that others stare at because it’s attractive, and bask in because it’s like relaxing in a pool of warm, liquid sunshine.

I believe this type of smile is the outpouring and overflowing of love –

Love of the moment,

Love of the person you’re with,

Love of God,

Love of who God created you to be.

At Shepherds College, we see smiles like this regularly – our staff are people who find deep joy and satisfaction in knowing the love of the Lord and loving Him in return. Our students, even in their homesickness or worries about schoolwork, smile genuinely and often – they love making new friends, pleasing their teachers and learning new skills. 

Even with all these beautiful smiles in the hallways, classrooms and dorms, there’s one teacher that absolutely owns this expression – Miss Laura Pollard.

Last year, Miss Pollard and her dog Lucy moved to Wisconsin from Tennessee.

 Lucy

She started working at Shepherds College as Residential Life staff in Home A. This year, she’s teaching a first-year female Health class, two sections of a second-year Communications class and the third-year Trained for Life class.  She’s also an Academic Advisor for eight of our first-year students.

Along with that generous smile, she brings her easy-going, fun-loving, quirky personality into the classroom. As a teacher, she’s not afraid to go to an extreme to make a point during her lessons. If she has to teach a concept by dressing up in a bizarre costume or singing at the top of her lungs, she’s going to do it, and she’ll be laughing at herself along the way.

Is this how you dress for an interview?

Don’t let all the smiles and laughter fool you though! Miss Pollard recognizes that God called her to Shepherds College, and she takes this calling very seriously. She’s known since high school when she started volunteering with a hippotherapy horseback riding program for kids with disabilities that she would be working in this field as an adult.  After teaching for a year in the public school system, it became clear that she wanted to navigate toward post-secondary education for adults with intellectual disabilities. 

Miss Pollard prefers the hands-on and facilitator methods of teaching. As the facilitator of activities and discussions in the classes she teaches, she enjoys watching her students take charge of how the discussion is directed. She is aware that each student comes into her classroom with their own stories and experiences, and that they can teach her as much as she can teach them. There are days when these practical life lessons communicate far more than a PowerPoint ever could. It is her hope that one day her students would become content and confident in the way God has fearfully and wonderfully created them.

We at Shepherds College are blessed beyond measure to call her friend, teacher and co-worker. She wraps up her great energy, caring spirit, welcoming personality, positive attitude and cute, southern accent with one enormous, soul-warming smile - and offers it as a gift to everyone she meets.

Miss Luchterhand and Miss Pollard

“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”  ~ Mother Teresa

Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.