Wendler Middle
School
Principal: Joel Roylance
Contact: Dan Rufner,
Counselor
Phone: 742-7338 |
| The
intent of RAMBUCKS is to facilitate a student
directed, Wendler-wide motivational program
addressing academic, behavior, attendance,
and social issues that will include all
students through a wide range of incentives
and rewards. |
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The practice of education includes
many strategies and techniques to
improve the way educators teach and
students learn. Even the best methods,
however, are not likely to succeed if the
student has no motivation to strive for
success. Though the hope is for all students
apply intrinsic motivation to do
their best, the reality is middle school
students need a great deal of externally
motivating stimuli to drive them to attain
goals. The hope is that Wendler students
will follow trends in research that indicate
students trained to process external
motivation will begin to foster internal motivation
practice. The overall aim is for
students to develop motivation striving
towards academic success, activities
involvement, and enjoyment of school.
RAMBUCKS are currently created to
reward in increments of $10, $20, and
$50. A committee reviews specific activity
(i.e. GPA levels) to determine amount
of reward. Every rewards-earning student’s
name is printed on each bill to
prevent theft and copying. RAMBUCKS
are paid out on a bi-weekly “pay day”.
Students redeem RAMBUCKS for various
incentives at the RAMBUCKS store,
which is open every Friday at lunch.
Students choose to spend or save
depending on the reward they are
interested in. |
The following businesses have contributed
to the success of Rambucks,
through donations of $500 each:
Thomas, Head, and Griesen, Certified
Public Accountants, and Sentry Mini-Storage
Wendler Middle School serves a
unique student population. Among our
usual 950 students we have a large number
of economically challenged families,
many military families that are seeing
parents coming and going, native students
who may be coming to live in a city
for the first time, and parents that spend
every other week away from home at
mines or the oil fields. Unfortunately
these factors too often contribute to our
students not having home structure and
support that provide motivation for our
students to succeed.
Unlike other incentive programs that
recognize only academic achievement
(i.e. Honor Roll) RAMBUCKS is extends
beyond GPA to include rewards for GPA
improvement, perfect attendance, participation
in activities, joining academic
clubs or challenges (i.e. geography
bee), behavior rewards, teacher incentives… the
door is wide open as all staff now have an incentive
to offer without
needing to develop their own rewards. |
