Roland Rogers Teacher To Be Featured on NJTV on Sunday

NJTV’s “Classroom Close-up” this month will feature Terry Dougherty, a Galloway teacher and graduate student at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, for tutoring children whose parents are in the military.

Dougherty, who is Atlantic County’s Teacher of the Year, winner of the Great American Teach-Off and a Coast Guard wife and mom, started the free program to help military children who change schools frequently and develop gaps in their learning.

Dougherty teaches third grade at the Roland Rogers Elementary School in Galloway and is a student in Stockton’s Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program. She got her bachelor’s degree in Teacher Education at Stockton, too.

The program, which was featured in October’s Family Circle magazine, runs in the summers at Stockton. The tutors are teachers from Atlantic County school districts and college students who volunteer their time and gain experience.

“The program started out of my house. As a teacher, I saw the children on my street and knew they needed help,” explained Dougherty.

From her home, the program expanded to the Galloway Public Library, but word traveled faster than Dougherty could keep pace with. That’s when she decided to seek help from Stockton.

“I knew that Stockton College had a great reputation for community service,” she said.

Dougherty turned to Daniel Tome, the college’s assistant director of Service Learning, who was interviewed for the show along with Dean Claudine Keenan of Stockton’s School of Education.

A film crew from Classroom Close-up, NJ, a co-production of the New Jersey Education Association and NJTV, came to Stockton in August to capture footage and interviews. 

The special, titled “Schools Supporting Soldiers’ Kids,” will air on NJTV on:

• 12/15 Sunday at 7:30 am
• 12/18 Wednesday at 11:30 pm
• 12/21 Saturday at 5:30 am
• 1/19  Sunday 7:30 am, 12:30 pm
• 1/25 Saturday 5:30 am

— News release from The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey