Mermaid Tilda and... Do you sometimes question yourself?

I am posting during the week, amazing isn't it? I was supposed to have my scrapping friends over for a playdate tonight, but it is SOOOO cold, we decided to leave it till it warms up. Roll on summer!
I have had this card made for a while, but never posted it. Not sure why not. I just love this little Tilda. She is the ideal image to use on a card for my little 'mermaid' Anke. She always says that it is only when she is in the water that she truly feels alive.
Tilda was coloured with my Copics and given a liberal treatment of Stickles on her tail. The bubbles are covered in Dimentional Glaze. Cardstock is Bazzil and the Dp is a little piece from my scrapbox. The image and mat was cut out with a Nestie. The ribbon is from my stash and the pearls come from Paola.

I took a closse up of the image, hoping you can see the bling on her tail.

Personal rambling are following, so you can stop reading now if you wish. LOL

I have had the worst two days at school in - well maybe in forever. Being a teacher is never easy. Kids are by nature very ungrateful and selfcentered - I get that and I don't expect them to be any different.

Over the last few years there has been a particularly 'difficult' girl in our school. Actually, I am of the opinion that it is not the child that has been difficult, but more her father who is a self centered, opinionated, pompous a@##, that makes excuses for his daughter's behaviour and never lets her take responsability for anything.

At the beginning of this year just about every single person on the staff had had enough of this little man and his big ego. The principal of the High School refused to deal with him any longer, the Deputy did not want anything to do with him either and he refused for his child to have ANY contact with the school councilor. I am the grade head for her grade, so I was called in by the Headmaster and asked if I would take her under my wing and try to help her.

Strangely enough, even though I had had a terrible run in with dad, I can't help but like this girl. I get the feeling that all she wants is a little bit of love, so I said I would do it. I had meetings with her and the headmaster on a monthly basis, checking on her progress. Because I teach her, I see her every day. We had long talks about what was appropriate behaviour and what was not. On one occasion, she screamed at a teacher and walked away. She ran straight to me and told me that she thought she had just made a terrible mistake. After I listened to her story I asked her what she thought she should do about it. She could not verbalise the right reaction and when I suggested that she should go back to the teacher and apologise, she nearly died! She did it though, begging me to walk with her to the teacher's classroom. I said I would walk with her, but that she would have to go in by herself. She did and I could not have been prouder of her if she was my own child!

So, silly me, I thought that we were making progress. We have just finished writing exams and this girl failed the term. She came to me crying and I consoled her and told her that even though she was still failing, her marks had gone up and that she was so close to passing that she would definately be able to pass the year if she keeps working.

Next thing I know, the deputy knocks on my classroom door and informs me that she is busy with an investigation into my exam paper. Turns out, this girl's father sent an e-mail to the Headmaster, saying that my paper was full of spelling and syntax errors and that the instructions were contradictory. He also demanded that another teacher's papers be marked by an independant person because that teacher is victimising his daughter!

My paper had two typing errors that slipped through and that was corrected BEFORE the girls wrote the paper, there are NO syntax errors (don't know how he would know that, seeing he is Portugese and the paper is Afrikaans!) no contradictory instructions either.

I can not tell you how this episode has thrown me! I don't know how to handle this. I am angry (VERY), I am sad, I am dissapointed and most of all I am starting to question my ability as a teacher.

I might just remove my rambling tomorrow, but I just had to get it off my chest.. If you read all the way to here, thank you for listening, I will propably feel better tomorrow and wonder why I made such a fuss.

Have a great weekend everybody see you soon.