Recent Posts in Gifted Students

 

NEW HAMPTON, NH -- New Hampton School is pleased to announce the introduction of an iPad pilot program for incoming ninth-grade students beginning in September.

 

All ninth-grade students and selected faculty members will receive iPads as part of the program, which was funded by a recent reunion gift from the New Hampton School Class of 1960. The pilot program will inform how the school will continue to improve technology integration in the classroom and prepare students for college and beyond.

 

“It’s been our vision to be a nationally recognized innovator in how we deliver curriculum and durable skills to our students,” says Head of School Andrew Menke. “This pilot program affords us the opportunity to create an environment of exploration for our students.”

 

Menke says that the school will evaluate the implementation of the iPad in the ninth graders’ experience, and then decide whether the iPad will be fully integrated into the school experience for all students.

 

New Hampton School Technology Integration Coordinator Hans Mundahl says that the pilot program is much more than giving a slick, new device to a group of curious students.

 

“It is a tool that will help our students solve problems,” says Mundahl. “We’re hoping to enable students and teachers to work creatively with one another in new ways. It has the chance to transform the way faculty teach and the way students learn.”  

Even students who are labeled gifted or talented experience underachievement. When they are performing well below what their parents or teachers recognize they are capable of, they are underachieving. But pointing out the situation is often not enough to spur a gifted child to suddenly increase their level of scholastic output or effort.

 

There are generally two major reasons gifted students can be underachievers: external forces and internal forces. Among external forces are more environmental factors, such as classes and teachers that do not provide a challenge, peer pressure, isolation from peers by being gifted and family dynamics. Internal factors include feelings of anxiety or depression, learning difficulties and rebellion.

 

Many underachievers are prone to disorganization. They lose assignments, don’t turn in homework, daydream, lack prioritization skills and spend more time on activities like reading or video games than on the work they should be doing for class. Others are perfectionists who are often unable to complete assignments on time because they are so worried about doing a great job; others are more concerned about speed, and being done first, to do a quality job. Either way, the result is the same – performance of a lower caliber than is possible.