Marcel has subbed 6 days now and has been an instructional aide (at Desert Springs Elem, Sage Valley MS), PE teacher (Birch Elem, Vallivue HS), 1st grade teacher (Central Canyon Elem) and an Alternative School teacher (Vallivue Academy). He has loved each of them, even if he was a bit nervous going back to first grade. They have each provided many wonderful opportunities for him. Like today at Sage Valley, he wasn't really needed as the classroom aide, so he was able to meet the Band teacher and even conduct the jazz band! At Birch, he was able to meet the music teacher who has now personally requested him to sub in her classroom for 3 different days! Back to the original point of my post.
Being a substitute teacher is quite an art form. I learned that from a guy I worked with at the gym. Because of what Dan taught be about subbing, this is our nightly routine:
Check the sub site multiple times throughout the night, and right before bed. Wake up at 4am to check the site again in hopes of there being an opening to claim before the calls start going out to fill spots last minute. Return to bed until needing to be up to get ready for the big day of work!
(last night was the first time Marcel had a job prior to going to bed)
That alone is quite an art, but we also do one more thing nightly:
We call/text the people pictured above to see if Marcel can be driven to work in the morning.
This is how awesome they are: we are able to put them "on-call" to take him all the mornings that I am at work and they get him to wherever he needs to go. Marcel just calls them at 6:45am (when my mom gets up) and lets them know where his job is for the day.
(Marcel has been able to get himself to work only twice, which happened to be his first 2 days)
Our current financial situation requires that we both be working (and ideally, more than we are!) but without the public transportation that we had available in Oregon, it would be impossible for Marcel to sub and for me to stay as a stock associate at Banana, because of the schedules. Also, because of our financial situation it is not feasible for us to get another car. We did some used car shopping when we got here, but it is so hard to think about adding another expense to an already tight budget.
We are so grateful for all the help they provide us. Besides this amazing taxi service, they are also great landlords that don't expect payment while Marcel is in school. I don't know what we'd do without them.
They are going to be able to retire as taxi drivers soon, as I have been offered a job to watch a 4 month old in my home, so Marcel will be able to take the car. The family is a bit worried about our 1 car situation, because if Marcel was working, I'd be stranded at our house with no means of transportation. But, our awesome landlords/taxi drivers have come to the rescue once again! They have agreed to let me park their old suburban at my house to be used in case of an emergency; not that I'd want to drive it any other time because of the cost of gas for such a big vehicle. I need to get in contact with the parents again soon (we always seem to play great games of phone tag!), but it looks like I will be starting March 16th!
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