Franklin Crowder
Educator/Aspiring Administrator
DIVERSITY & SOCIAL EQUITY
An education leader promotes the success of every student by understanding, responding to, and influencing the political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context. An effective leader promotes and expects fair and inclusive opportunities for all students. Effective leaders seek to first understand before trying to be understood. Social equity acknowledges that each person should have access to the amount of opportunities and resources that they need specifically. The distinction between equity and equality is important because it acknowledges that each person starts off with a different level of privilege in life, and therefore everyone will not have identical needs, due to factors like language, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity and gender.
DOUGHNUTS WITH DAD & MUFFINS WITH MOM
This program was constructed by our PTO as a way to bring parents into the buiding and create a social environment for all stakeholders. The main goal was to invite parents parents to a morning social with their students and have books available on numerous reading levels. The idea was to allow for parets to read to their students (or vice versa) and spend quality time with their student. Several neighboring schools have had success with variations of such a program. I thought that this was a great way to get stakeholders involve and very thankful to be part of the planning process. I feel that we could make this more comprehensive by having more classroom subjects available and incorporate technology in potential tutoring atmospheres.
FIELD DAY
Every year, Sutherland Elementary School holds their annual Field Day event for all students. Students get the chance to display their athletic prowess while allowing stakeholders to come and watch the many different events being conducted. As the Chair of this committee, I can attest that this event takes many hours of planning and involves many different community partners such as Vulcan Materials (event officials), parent volunteers, and collaborating with many different committees such as Title I and our PTO. Such collaborative efforts have to be present in order for the success of the event to take place every year. I have found that the smiles on the faces of the students at the end of day is well worth the hard work put in every year.
VIRTUAL FIELD DAY: OVERCOMING BARRIERS
In 2020, the sudden cessation of in-person classes and events throughout the nation saw the cancellation of many annual school traditions. This year, I wanted to continue our Field Day at Sutherland Elementary with a little creative twist. Below are clips that I have made to help stakeholders have a better understanding of the process as well as a little motivation to get students interested and want to participate.
SOCIAL CAPITAL AT THE BUS LOOP
As the Physical Education Teacher at my school, I have the pleasure to know every student in the school as I see them twice a week for class. With the many meetings that we have, I have a great change to build social capital and hopefully, leads to an increase in student achievement. Research shows that this can be done by moving away from a focus on school improvement, which is driven by individual schools organizing and acting solely as the educational haven and moving towards a focus on increasing the value of social capital by creating and sustaining effective educational communities. At Sutherland Elementary School, the mission and vision of the school is to continually make an effort to build trust with parents and community members by engaging them in collaboration, decision-making, and share in our mission. I have the unique opportunity to socialize with community members and parents to become more involved in learning about our school, working together, and sharing the vision of not just the school, but the entire county. Sometimes this meant meeting at parent-friendly times, being involved in community events, or mingling our on the bus loop for bus duty as I do every day in the morning and the afternoon (even if it means that you have to dress up as a triceratops). It is extremely important for administrators to understand that relational trust is the first and essential element of building social capital.
COACHING: ATHLETICS
Coaching is a unique position in which athletes are encouraged to enjoy the positive benefits of sport as well as help their players reach their full potential both on and off the field. Sports equity and being equitable means that practices and competitions are fair, open, and open to everyone who wish to participate. This means enhancing, applying, and extending my skills as a coach to meet the needs of every player.
BEYOND DIVERSITY: COURAGEOUS CONCERSATION
BEYOND DIVERSITY is a powerful, personally transforming two-day seminar designed to help leaders, educators, students, parents, administrators and community participants understand the impact of race on student learning and investigate the role that racism plays in institutionalizing academic achievement disparities. Engage in a thoughtful, compassionate exploration of race and racism and grapple with how each influences the culture and climate of our schools; and practice using strategies for identifying and addressing policies, programs, and practices that negatively impact achievement for students’ of color and serve as barriers for ALL students receiving a world-class education.
