As much as I love class dojo as a communication tool with families, sometimes I see when the dojo symbol pop up on my phone after hours, I get worried. I've gotten messages as late as ten pm and as early as five am. Granted, my phone is on vibrate and I rarely hear it during the middle of the night.
Friday night, around ten pm, my phone dinged with the class dojo message.
Hesitantly, I peeked at the message. My mind raced with which parent was going to bring up an issue. I worried that I missed something crucial and my night would be spent frantically texting my principal, making sure bully reports were appropriately filled out.
That wasn't the message.
It simply said:
Thank you for today. You're awesome :)
It was from a parent who is having some behavior struggles with her child. Friday was lunch with someone you love and she wasn't able to make it on time because of her job. The office called when we got back to lunch and asked what I'd like to do. I know the "correct" response would be to keep him in the classroom for learning instruction, but that wasn't what I chose to do.
Instead, I quietly told the office that he'd be having a second lunch with his mom because he needed to feel loved. He's one of six children and understandably, sometimes feels lost in the shuffle. He needed this one on one time with his momma, and that's what mattered. I quietly pulled him into the hallway and explained he was headed to the office to see a special visitor. He had the biggest smile on his face as he skipped (yes, skipped) off to see her.
He was gone about fifteen minutes, didn't miss anything urgent in the classroom, and I know it meant the world to him and his mom.
I don't expect to be reprimanded for this choice, but sometimes meeting a student's emotional needs must come before the educational ones.
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