Sophie Chambers teaches gifted education for kindergarteners through 8th graders in her rural hometown of Chillicothe, Missouri. Over her 15-year career, she has remained passionate about reaching her most struggling students while simultaneously pushing her highest-achieving students. Sophie believes that all children are gifted but in different areas ranging from IQ to art to leadership to empathy and beyond. In 2015, during only her fifth year of teaching, Mrs. Chambers was selected as Chillicothe's districtwide Teacher of the Year, and three years later, she was honored as a Midwest Education Technology Conference Spotlight Educator. From 2019-2022, Sophie was honored to serve as a U.S. State Department Fulbright Teacher for Global Classrooms where she traveled to Germany to foster educational relationships between the two countries. Before serving as her district's sole gifted teacher, she taught third and fourth grades as an elementary homeroom teacher and spent several years splitting her time as an instructional coach as well. In her classroom, Sophie Chambers teaches every subject area under the sun. Some of her favorite units to teach each year are outer space, Latin, philosophy, hydroponics, owl pellets, and geography. Her job allows her to teach at every age level and content area, and she loves the variety that occurs in her every day. Mrs. Chambers also serves her district as the co-chair for their Professional Development Committee and loves developing new content to present to colleagues. She finds that presenting keeps her motivated and current with innovative initiatives and modern learning. In her personal life, Sophie is married to Kyle, is mother to 10-year-old Max and 7-year-old Matilda, and foster mother to 20-year-old Kadence and 18-year-old Carter. The family loves traveling the globe in their RV. Most recently, her and her children spent over three weeks car-camping for 6,300 miles to explore all of Maritime Canada, and she and her husband spent their anniversary at Machu Picchu in Peru. While they travel, one of the family's favorite pastimes is finding Dark Sky zones to view the night sky since outer space is one of Sophie's first loves!