Orange Dot Day

After weeks of no communication logs, there was one in Shane's folder today. 

And it held a first.

I asked Shane about it on the way home. I wanted to see if he could reflect and identify why he had an orange dot. He couldn't.

The next step would have been to brainstorm a better path in the same situation. However, I didn't feel like I had enough information. It wasn't a red dot, but was it from disrespect? Or from too much bouncing around? I expect Shane to have some trouble sitting still (he's my son, after all), but if he was unkind to a classmate?

So, I wrote his teacher.

Hello,

Shane came home with an orange dot today, but he can't really explain to me why. It's not red, but I wanted to check in. Shane mentioned "He had a rough day," he "had trouble listening," he pointed at someone else's project with a pencil, and someone hit his shoulder and he "didn't like it." I wasn't quite sure what to make of his comments on the matter. He also said normally someone with orange had to miss some recess, and that he normally has yellow days.

How has he been doing overall? I saw he had a green day on Monday. Is there something he needs to be working on?

The turn-around time was half-an-hour

Hey there!

Shane has been doing wonderfully! The days that he's on yellow just means he has to think about his actions usually for talking, but he usually understand why. He usually has a mixture of yellow and green days. And if ever he moves down a color, there is always room and opportunity to move back up.

Being on orange is very rare and unusual for him. He received a couple of warnings about voice level during classroom testing which made it difficult for other students to hear me in small group. He was asked to move down to orange after numerous requests to bring his voice down (this was at the end of the day).

 Overall he's been doing really well. He's very helpful and encouraging to peers and a great joy to have in class. :) We've just been struggling with indoor voices which is very important during testing. At recess we spent a few minutes talking about the importantance of voice levels and how other students may not be able to hear. 

Trying to end the day on a positive note, we said that tomorrow we would work on our voice level and during small groups. 

Aside from voice level, I assure you, he is doing great! Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I hope that the orange dot didn't get him down too much. If so, I can talk to him about it tomorrow. Give him a hug for me, until then! 

I was impressed by the fast reply. Very professional. Kindergarten teachers must expect and experience a very different level of parent communication than I do at the high school. Or maybe we just got a good one.

Back to the matter at hand: Why am I not surprised my son can be loud?

I read Shane a small selection and we talked about voice levels. He should have a better day tomorrow.

Shane really, really wanted to use the drone, but I told him no drone on an orange day. Otherwise, the night unfolded as usual. I told Shane there'd be no TV or electronics on a red day, and that we'd think of something fun to do if he made it to pink. Hopefully, I'll be able to make a fun Pink Dot Day post sooner rather than later.