Esther Hopkin

Sc Ed 375
Mike Richardson
Management Plan Explanation
As hinted at in my mission statement, my ideal dance classroom would be full of students
who are engaged in the movement/activity and actively searching out solutions to problems. The
best would be for the students to be intrinsically motivated to learn, always thirsty to explore and
discover more in a certain area of their own free will. I want to help students be proactive
learners by sometimes answering their questions with more questions. For most students, the
questions that I pose to them will make them frustratedonly to the point that they realize that
they truly want to know the answer. My questions could also push them to find solutions on their
own. I feel that letting the students make their own discoveries is more powerful than having an
adult simply tell them what to do. It allows them to use their autonomy in how they want to
approach the problem, to take learning into their own hands where they see a problem and want
to tackle it of their own free will. In that sense, I agree to a certain extent with Alfie Kohn.
However, I believe that Kohns model is impossible to implement in this world.
Admittedly, we watched a clip of a school that used his model, but I believe an education should
provide more than what that school offered. There are many things that I have studied and
learned in school that are essential to becoming a well-rounded, contributing adult in society, and
I would have never searched them out on my own. In fact, things like politics and government
still do not interest me; but in that same breath, I cannot deny that they are necessary to
understand or at least explore in an education.

These subjects that are uninteresting to us will vary from person to person, and that is
how it should be. We all have our niches. But it is crucial to be able to at least understand a
smidgeon of what the rest of the world holdsthe world outside of your nicheso that you can
relate to it and know what goes on outside of your own bubble.
Since we are not all excited (or in other words, intrinsically motivated) about the same
things, we will only learn about these seemingly unpleasant subjects through extrinsic
motivation. As a teacher, I draw mostly on awarding participation points, Joness Preferred
Activity Time (PAT), and positive reinforcement ideas for this extrinsic motivation.
Each day, students are given participation points, which constitute a large portion of their
grade. Essentially, if a student is coming to class each day and engaging in the learning activities,
I believe they should pass my class. Thus, if they are intrinsically motivated and naturally
engaged, they will automatically do well. But for those students who need an extra little push,
they will know that their grade will suffer if they miss class, do not contribute to group work, are
not prepared for class that day, or are going against classroom policies. (More will be discussed
on not following classroom policies later.) I know that I have personally needed that extrinsic
incentive to try in dance class before, and it is even a class that I love! Some days, motivation is
simply low, and students need something more to make them want to move or engage in the
material.
Another tactic I plan to use is Joness PAT. Again, I am primarily using this because I
know that it has worked on me as a student. There have been times when I am mentally done
with rehearsal or class, and then my teacher says something like If we can finish cleaning this
piece and run it full-out once in x amount of time, we can spend the rest of the time doing x
activity. Those activities have been stretching, relaxing time, watching a video clip of a dance,

etc. In elementary school, I remember needing to earn a certain number of Accelerated Reading
points (different numbers of points were rewarded for different novels you could read) in order to
earn a read-a-thon. It definitely worked for me!
Besides that, I do my best to recognize and acknowledge positive behavior in class in
order to encourage students to continue that good behavior. When I ask students to begin an
activity or solve a problem together, I verbally thank those students who are on task without
waiting for me to remind them what we are doing. On occasions when they seem to be the only
students listening, I give them extra credit points and tell them I am doing so.
When it comes to managing misbehavior, I agree most with Kounin. His ideas of with-itness, overlapping, momentum, and group focus are what feel most natural to me when I am
teaching. Im not sure if that is because that is my natural teacher personality or if my jobs and/or
teaching classes have trained me to teach in that way, but I find that it feels inherent for the most
part. It is also effective, in my experience. If I know how I am going to transition activities to
keep the flow of the lesson and seem like I know what is happening in the room, then I
personally feel like I am doing everything that I can (in the boring, logistics side of teaching) to
facilitate learning. If there is no flow to the lesson, students will get lost and not know how to file
the information they are learning. Similarly, if the transitions are smooth enough, students will
not have enough idle time to feel the need to fill it with goofing off.
When it gets down to the wire, though, and I have that one student that just insists on
misbehaving or distracting the whole class, I think the best way to handle that is love them and
build a personal relationship with them. Underneath it all, I think us humans want to be loved, to
have a place of belonging, and to connect with others through meaningful relationships.
Dreikers, Gordon, and Glasser all touched on that in their own way. I believe human beings are

largely motivated by being loved by others, and I have seen that in many instances in my life.
For instance, some students fight for power because they feel the need to validate their value and
importance. Other students act out because they want attentionagain, a need for validation.
The list could go on and on. However, if they know that I value them inherently as a human
being with strengths and things to offer the classroom and the world, then they will not have to
find that value or validation by fighting with me or searching for negative attention, etc.
In the end, I want to have a personal relationship with each of my students where they
feel that I value them as a personnot just as a dancer or a student, but as a person. Even if they
are not doing well in my class, I want them to know that I care about their well-being and that I
believe they can reach their full potential. Love is the greatest motivation and behavior-changer
in the universe. That is why it is the center of the gospel.