The simple definition of a teacher is a person or thing that teaches something.
As a teacher I know my job is to teach, to educate the minds of children and adults, essentially to encourage and inspire others. I would even say I was pretty confident that I had this down pat. Until… once upon a time there was a little girl named Lola and she taught me that as a teacher what I really needed to do is learn.
Lola came to visit the school way back in 2004. She arrived with a giant smile, the brightest eyes and I heard the sweetest voice as she said to me “I want to go to preschool”. In that moment in my mind Lola needed to come and I was going to make that happen. I was running through all of the scenarios of how to make this happen, what could I tweak or rearrange to make this a practical situation. You see, Lola not only arrived with her sparkling personality but she also arrived with her custom made, personalized purple wheelchair. The only way to access our school is to go downstairs or in an elevator which means in reverse for recess time. By the time the paperwork was signed I had a plan for the new routine and I was working out ways in my mind to teach the other children about Lola. After all, before me was a little girl who wants to go to school and of course I had so much I was going to be able to teach her.. and then she began.
Within about an hour of her first day of school I quickly realized that I was about to learn so much more from Lola than she would ever learn from me. Lola had a determination to experience life at the fullest. She was determined to get out of the wheelchair and sit in the regular classroom chairs, sit on the floor for circle time and most of all she simply wanted to experience everything school could offer. I will not forget that first day when one of the children approached her and said “Why do you have that chair?” I quickly stepped forward to make this a teachable moment with my infinite wisdom when Lola began to speak. She said something along the lines of “because my legs don’t work right”. And that, was that. The children had answers to their questions, Lola was empowered and confident and really I just needed to step back and let Lola educate all of us. From her open honesty to her determination to chase the kids on the playground in her wheelchair to her ability to find the pure joy in everything she did, Lola showed me that really she was the teacher.
I ran into Lola again a year ago. She is a confident teenager with that 
always present “Lola smile”. This time that beautiful smile is filled with braces, her wheel chair is bigger and perched on the arm of the chair, was her cell phone. She has gone from an excited 3 year old to a young lady who recently spoke about bullying to a bunch of 6th graders. Lola’s drive, attitude and approach to life is once again teaching me.