no, those marks you made weren't just for decoration.

So I've made it to the end of the week, YES! It feels somewhat strange due to the fact that we have basically accomplished nothing, wait let me rephrase that, the students have do nothing.
Yesterday it took all class to sew some paper together! I mean REALLY?! When i say "thread the needle through the tack holes that you have made on the crease" you'd think they would understand...oooooohhhh no! I cannot tell you how many kids were stabbing the paper in random spots! ...well that's a bit of a lie, there were 3 different student after 3 different demonstrations (and i mean, i drew in detail directions of the board, showed them the completed step on a book I had partially made just for this occasion, and I actually carried out the step on a brand new one right in front of them! ....i did forget to tell them to put their seeing eyes back in, hmmmm, my fault?).

After class I went to hand in some paperwork at the office, where I found Mr. Boss Man (very nice guy who is super excited to have an art class again for the kids, not sure it is as exciting for the kids as he may think), and as I soon discovered there is a good reason for the random hole poking, and extreme variations in production level. There are no middle round kids here! Where at most high schools you will find a nice rainbow of student ability (ex. Greylock...although a little heavy on the high end!) at this school it's as if a giant lined the students of Norfolk up according to educational ability and then scooped up everyone, leaving only those on the outskirts to fend for themselves and find a school to take them in...enter Ryan Academy...dadadadaaaaa! So it's normal to have to show someone how to fold a piece of paper in half twice, or explain that yes the hole you just made is where you want to sew through, and when I say "unfold the paper, lie it flat on a piece of cardboard and stab it with the tack" i actually mean exactly what i said.

Friday, last day of the school week, last day of my first week as a high school teacher, one more day of me telling the kids how to pronounce my name (okay, just call me Ms. Mollie, but not Ms. Reyo...I'm not even sure where that came from, but no you cannot use it). what do you think will we finish the sketchbooks today..?! HA, no! what a silly question!