WINTER RETURNS: SNOW/MIX TODAY

CONFERENCE WEEK REVIEW

We hit the mid-point of the trimester and that meant conferences. It was my honor to meet the wonderful parents of my awesome students. I appreciated the dialogue and the discourse we had on various topics. To me, these are always insightful and helpful meetings as there was a healthy exchange of information passed to each other. We had a lot to review. However, for my parents I would like to review what I emphasized a the meetings: 

1. Growth and Progression are the big markers of student achievement. 

2. Grades are important, but they are not the whole story of what is going on in the classroom. 

3. A partnership needs to exist between the teacher and the parents at home so there is a clear line of communication and the key source to know what is going on with our classroom is Mr. Dougherty. 

Please contact me if you have additional questions. I appreciate all the sacrifices you have made to our school. 

We thank Ms. Manis for donating her mini-van for helping out with the success of Trunk or Treat last Wednesday night. It was a success and we thank all of those who attended and contributed. 

 A CLASSROOM IN ACTION AND MOTION

We have reached the fifth week of school and, honestly, at this point, it's more of a question of what we are not doing as opposed to what we are DOING! :}  And we are doing a lot. 

And I couldn't be prouder of my gang! 

First, in Math this week we finished place value and did ordering and rounding of numbers.  I had the students order themselves in greatest to least, or least to greatest numbers with their cards. They had a number written on it and had to place themselves in the order using non-verbal cues. It was awesome to watch them communicate and get into the proper order. This was almost half a Math class. Impressive! 

In Reading, we completed the story "A Walk In The Desert" by Rebecca Johnson. The students learned about the Desert biome and what animals can survive in a desert environment. They had to summarize the main ideas of the story into the chart form. They did an excellent job. And we know more about deserts! Next week we will be doing a project that will be their assessment for the story/unit. 

In STEM we built catapults. However, the point of it was to test solutions to problems and relate it to information in our Science unit. Engineering is so interesting. And the students had to analyze their designs and gauge whether their catapult design met the criteria which were for it to launch something through the air. And again, all were very successful in completing that task. 

And not related to a class specifically, I am currently helping manage our Future Cities program which engages MS students in building a city model and learning about the engineering and design business. This is something the 4th and 5th graders can look forward to as we move along in our years here at All Saints where we are always engaging minds and strengthening faith. 

Have a great week! 

A Student Line-Up Showing off their greatest to least cards.

Future Cities

Future Cities

WRITERS WORKSHOP: PERSONAL NARRATIVE

A WEEK OF WRITING

This week in Reading the students spent the week learning the Four Square Method of writing a personal narrative.  The Four Square methods are where you plan your writing using four squares. The purpose of the Four Square Method is for students to plan an organized piece of writing. It can work with any style of writing. See below for more information. 

Most students this week wrote about a problem that they had to solve like a mystery.  They wrote their plan using the four square methods.  Then they had to get a "Workshop Buddy" to edit the paper. Then they typed their final drafts using Google Docs. And there were some pretty impressive stories. Ask your daughter/son what they wrote and let them show/read it to you. 

Great job gang! 

LITTLE PLANE ENGINEERS

Our first unit in Science in Engineering and Technology. So this week we took it upon ourselves to understand how engineers build things and look at three major characteristics:  1. Criteria  2. Constraints  3. Making Improvements.  So, after our discussion on Monday, we took the rest of the week to "engineer" paper airplanes.  First, this is the process we took: 1. Make the plane  2. We examined the things that make it fly. 3. Test trials outside. And we had some wind to factor in. 4. Analyze the first trials  5. Make ONE improvement on the plane. 6. Test the improvements/results. 

And THEY did a phenomenal job! Science looks to be REALLY FUN this year! 

FIRST WEEKS OF SCHOOL

The first few weeks of school have FLOWN by and I couldn't be any happier with my gang. In the last few weeks we have accomplished the following:

• Our class rules and procedures
• Our non-verbal cues to answer questions
• Out non-verbal cues to go to the bathroom, and if someone is bothering us. For example, our system is 1, 2, or 3. 
• We have started into our classes.  We are almost to Lesson 2 in Math of Chapter One-Place Value. We have started our first units in Social Studies-Geography and Science-Engineering and Technology. 
• We did a Science STEM lab on our first Friday by learning the Scientific Method and observing properties of a Twizzler. This was a tasty exercise as well !! 
• We are starting to use the Math program Prodigy and the features that offer us to enhance our Math curriculum. 
• We have completed our first chapter in Religion. 
• The class has exemplified the meaning of modeling for the rest of the grades on our floor with behavior and ways a class should be. 

Wow, that's a pretty impressive first couple of weeks I would say! I'm very impressed with this group and happy we are enjoying getting to know ourselves. 

If you have any questions or issues please e-mail me at bdougherty@ascsde.org 

Pictures of our great 4th Grade Class: 

WELCOME TO THE 2019-2020 SCHOOL YEAR

ANOTHER YEAR IS APPROACHING

I want to welcome you all to another exciting school year 2019-2020. Let me introduce myself.  My name is Brandon Dougherty. I am in my 21st year of teaching and education. I'm in my 20th year of Catholic School education.  Here are some highlights: 

• 20 years of teaching in Catholic Education
• Formally taught at Ursuline Academy in Wilmington
•  Graduated from Cabrini College
• History and Religion Teacher for many years
• Starting my second year at All Saints Catholic School 4th Grade

The purpose of this blog will be to inform you of what is going on in our classroom. It will feature highlights from our lessons and student achievement.  There will not be pictures of our students. I will only mention the first names of students not last names.  And all postings will be from me. If you have any questions please e-mail me at bdougherty@ascsde.org 

I'm looking forward to a fantastic year! Take Care! 

Brandon Dougherty: 4th Grade Teacher