Mr. Cherry Bio

Ryan Cherry is from Brooklyn, Michigan and attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. He is a highly qualified educator who spent the last 15 years working in various educational settings around the Midwest. After seeing his high school soccer coach be an influential role model in the lives of his elementary students, he studied elementary education in college as he sought to also positively impact the lives of students. This is his 8th year at Decatur. He did his student teaching in 5th grade at Cleveland School in Chicago. He taught Language Arts and Math in a 5th grade classroom in Brookfield, IL, all subjects in a 4th through 6th grade room at a public Montessori school in Indiana and at Hibbard Elementary in CPS before coming to Decatur in 2017.

Mr. Cherry is inquisitive and curious about the people and world around him. He enjoys reading as it a great avenue to better understand people and our world. He agrees with Dr. Seuss that "the more you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." Mr. Cherry is filled with immense excitement about the chance to teach physical education, as it combines his passion for physical activity and sports with the joy of engaging with students and supporting them enthusiastically. He is fascinated by neuroscience and its intersection with physical activity and is grateful for the chance to have students four days each week to encourage their physical activity.

He is passionate about seeing students gain confidence in their abilities to be successful in both the classroom and the world and become well rounded individuals who care for others as they care for themselves. In his free time, Mr. Cherry enjoys playing sports, spending time with friends and family and enjoying a delicious slice of pie with some strong coffee.

Posts

Jr High Volleyball Class Tournaments

Students in Jr. High participated in a round robin volleyball tournament focusing on communicating, and applying their bumping, setting and serving skills.

Primary Workouts in the music room

This week was the winter show so we got creative and moved our classes all over the building- thanks to Ms Schmittle for letting us use the music space. Primary students worked on their striking and volleying skills with both their hands and a paddle. They also engaged in a high intensity interval training workout.

Volleyball Bump and Set Games

Intermediate students used foam balls and volleyballs and were shown how to bump and set the ball. Students practiced these 2 skills through games like pass and set circles and bump and set 4-square.

A special shout out to our 5th/6th grade Boys soccer and Girls Volleyball teams because they both won network Championships for Decatur. Congrats to all our fall sports athletes for their hard work and dedication!

Volleyball 4-Square

Jr. High Handball Tournament

The Jr. High students also completed their handball tournaments. We discussed different strategy elements like using the pivot foot, the give and go and using fakes to help create space. This is a constant theme that overlaps into nearly every competition that we do.

Parachute Games- Kindergarten

Primary students worked on their teamwork skills and following directions while playing different parachute games like color center and igloo. We had so much fun!

Free the Prisoners Game

Primary students practiced their throwing and catching skills through the Free the prisoners game complete with a dragon, moat and castle!

Intermediate Grades Handball Tournament

Students have been working on their throwing skills as well as utilizing teamwork to achieve more together

Throwing Skills Boom City Game Oct 30- Nov 3, 2023

Boom City is a game where there are 2 teams and each team has a set of catchers on the wall mats. Each team also has throwers and blockers. The throwers need to complete a pass to the catchers on the mat who need to spike the ball and yell Boom City if they successfully throw and catch the ball. Blockers try to prevent the throwers and catchers from

Decatur Jogathon 2023

Check out some great pictures from our Fall Fundraiser the Jogathon! What a blast!

The Cleanest Yard Game Oct 17, 2023

They practiced throwing skills in a great game called Cleanest Yard where students need to throw dodgeballs that represent “trash” in their yard over an imaginary wall in the center of the gym using their underhand and overhand throwing skills. Whatever side is the cleanest at the end of 5 minutes is crowned the Cleanest Yard.

Hula Hut Throwdown Oct 13 2023

Jr. High students wrapped up the week playing a game called Hula Hut Throw Down where students get hula hoops for throwing dodgeballs into a target and then work to build as many hula huts as possible in the time frame given while the other team tries to knock down their hula huts.

Fire and Ice Primary Game Oct 13, 2023

Students played a variation of a game we learned earlier in the year called Fire and Ice but this time utilized our underhand throwing skills to unfreeze students who had been frozen.

Name: Ryan Cherry
Position: Physical Education
Email: rrcherry@cps.edu