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

Clay Creature Offspring Lab

We conducted a lab where students received a set of instructions for different traits from 2 parents to model what happens in real life. Then students used their set of instructions and the code that went along with the instructions to find out the traits to the offspring. Next, they created out of modeling clay an offspring that demonstrated the traits that it was supposed to have based on the genetic instructions. Students really loved getting active with their hands and seeing in action how traits and genetics can work.

Here is an example of the type of math problem we are incorporating into our curriculum to deepen understanding of a skill like adding mixed numbers while also reinforcing number sense and problem solving skills.

Two more of the types of clouds we learned about science so we could answer the question "“How can we predict when it is going to storm?"

Two of the types of clouds we learned about science so we could answer the question "“How can we predict when it is going to storm?"

4th Cranberry Lab

Students explored whether or not cranberries float in water through an investigation.

Mystery Box Lab

Students engaged in an investigation with a Mystery Box where they considered what animals need to find their food and imagined that what was in the box was their food. They looked inside of the box to see that it was not possible to see if there is no light and then talked with their groups to decide what changes could be made to allow someone to see inside the box and came to the conclusion that light is needed to see inside the box.

Human Traits Bar Graphs

Students went around the room and responded for themselves on nine different traits including things like eye color, hair color, hair texture, dimples, etc. From their responses the class created bar graphs to analyze the data within our classroom and show the variations within a trait.

3rd Grade Science Songbird activity

This week students learned more about animal traits and used this to compare different birds. After looking at several birds we also listened to their singing and calls to decide whether they were songbirds or not. In the activity students stood up if they thought it was a songbird after hearing the sound of each bird.

Order of Operations Anchor Chart Posters

Students have been learning about order of operations in math and as a way for students to demonstrate their understanding they work with their group to create an anchor chart poster that explains what the order of operations are, how to use and and example of the steps being used in a problem of their choice.

Investigating Animals Senses 4th grade Science

Students worked with partners to explore different animals senses as they read the trade book Investigating Animals Senses and came up with questions related to the topic to help them read the informational text more closely.

3rd Grade Animals Traits Activity

Students explored a series of animal cards (think baseball card like) and analyzed the similarities and differences between traits of different organisms.

4 senses lab 4th grade science

As we try to answer how animals get information through their senses from their environment we explored our senses and how we collect information to be able to apply it to our unit on the declining Tokay Gecko population.

Time Spent Outside of School Data Analysis and Collaboration

Another 4th grade class in Huntington Indiana and both Decatur 4th grade classes collaborated together to collect data about how 4th graders in different parts of the Midwest spend their time. Students shared their data between each school and analyzed the data before sharing it with our sister class in Indiana in a live Google Meet. Students got to hear about what it was like to live in Chicago compared to Huntington as well as ask each other questions about what we saw in the data.

3rd Reference Book Scavenger Hunt

Students were beginning to learn about traits related to different organisms.

We are really focusing on the conceptual framework behind these different math skills so that students understand more than a process but also why the process works. One example is where students learned why you can cross out the zeros in the numerator and denominator.

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