My first substitute teaching job was in a fourth-grade class for a very good friend of mine. It was a rainy day in Southern California. Rainy days were a little bit challenging, as morning recess, afternoon recess, and lunch are all spent in the classroom, and there was a lot of extra time to fill. About an hour into the school day, we were all getting a little bored. I didn’t want to leave the kids unattended in the classroom, so I invited all the kids to the door while I grabbed a half dozen pie tins, braved the rain to collect six large snails. I placed a snail in each one of the pie tins and set the tins on each of the six tables that the students were sitting around. I had the students study the snails, and all the things that were unique to a snail. The fact that they have eyestalks, and their eyes move up and down these eyestalks or tentacles. I had a five-minute ‘bathroom break’, so I rushed to the school library, asked the librarian to help me grab all the books they had on snails, then I drew out a snail out on several papers. I wrote out several math problems on a page, I titled another page “If I were a snail…”, on a third page I wrote “Five facts about snails”, and on the last snail page we did an art project. The librarian made photocopies for the class, and the rest of the day we did ‘snail math’, ‘snail science’, ‘snail writing’, ‘snail art’, and played ‘snail fun facts’. We had a really fun day. The next morning got a call for a long-term sub job at the same school… the teacher had requested ‘The Snail Lady’. That day I gained a reputation I did not plan on. When it comes to our reputation, we cannot TELL anyone what we want to be known for, instead our reputation comes from what others see, (and what God sees) in us. The teachers there appreciated the fact that I took something simple… and had fun while we all learned together. It took the staff a while to learn my name, they just knew me by my reputation as a sub, ‘The Snail Lady’. I didn’t make a lot of money, but students of all ages and I had a great time and we all gained a wealth knowledge along the way.
“A sterling reputation is better than striking it rich; a gracious spirit is better than money in the ba k.” Proverbs 22:1
