Sophie Thorpe is a teacher from South Australia who we’ve previously written about when she shared the real-life COVID-related problems her students were tackling using Makers Empire.
Sophie is currently taking a break from teaching in Australia to experience teaching abroad. She now works as a Lead Educator for Boundless Life, a company that supports digital nomads by providing accommodations, co-working spaces, and a cutting-edge education system for the kids.
Boundless Life has education centres in Portugal, Greece, Italy, Indonesia, Montenegro, and Spain that cater to the children of digital nomad parents who have chosen to work remotely in a city for a specified period of time supported by Boundless Life. Alongside its academic program, Boundless Life’s education centres provide students with fortnightly field trips focused on local experiences and cultures and time for arts, music, and nature exploration.
When Sophie spoke with us, she was based in Tuscany, Italy teaching classes of 7-9 year olds and 10-12 year olds. The Boundless Life education centre there currently caters to children aged 0-12. School hours are similar to Australia: students arrive at 8:45am and school finishes at 3:30pm with optional after-school activities.
Here is Sophie in San Marino, the Pompeii ruins and at the Colosseum in Rome:
Sophie plans and teaches interdisciplinary lessons based on a Finnish curriculum.
“It’s a very similar approach (to Australia),” says Sophie.
“We favour hands-on learning experiences and a Montessori approach. The curriculum outcomes are quite similar.”
One of the projects that Sophie has been enjoying with her students is “questing” where each student cohort focuses on an age-appropriate, multi-disciplinary project based on a different UN Sustainable Development Goal.
“We’ve been learning about sustainable cities and communities so the kids have been designing sustainable waste management solutions,” says Sophie.
“We learnt how people are using sensors in public trash cans to collate data about which bins need emptying first, making collection routes more efficient and reducing the amount of carbon emissions from collection trucks. Some of the bins we learned about also had solar powered compactors in them so they could hold eight times the amount of trash, saving on collections by the trucks, too. So we do some research, we find out what’s going on already, look at all the technology out there and then the students’ designs reflect all the things that are possible and where we’re headed,” she added.
Sophie has also enjoyed letting her students’ interests help lead their learning.
“Where possible, we let the kids’ interests lead things,” she explained.
“For example, one of the students is teaching a PE lesson as he requested the opportunity to teach his peers and younger students. He’s really passionate about American football so he made a lesson plan and will deliver it to the class. One of the students was super interested in electric cars. He understood the benefits but couldn’t understand why everyone doesn’t buy one. So he went off and did research and shared it with the group. He explained why he thought electric cars were a sustainable form of transport,” she added.”
As the children are living in a different country to their home country, exploring learning opportunities in the local environment and culture is also prioritised.
“We do a lot of cultural learning with a field trip every fortnight and culture time lessons led by a local support teacher. We’re going to the Da Vinci museum on Friday and yesterday, in math, we used pasta pieces as fun manipulatives to help us work out a fraction of a quantity problem,” says Sophie.
“Today we’re going to go for a walk to collect primary data about how people use the public park by observing the activities they’re doing and discussing the benefits to their well-being.”
Whilst Sophie has wholeheartedly embraced all the learning opportunities to be found in the city around her, she has also introduced her students to an Australian STEM learning tool: Makers Empire!
“The kids are super excited. As soon as they saw (Makers Empire), they were really really engrossed in it. Some of them found it more challenging on the laptop as using a trackpad can be trickier. Basic training (in Makers Empire) is a lot easier on an iPad,” Sophie said.
“The students… are so engaged with creating their sustainable city designs that when I say it’s time to go eat lunch they say, ‘noo!’” she adds.
“I can already see with the younger kids that their spatial awareness is improving. Previously, I’ve used Makers Empire with older students so being able to use it with younger students is really nice.”
Check out these designs focused on sustainability solutions made by Sophie’s students using Makers Empire:
Sophie is loving her overseas teaching experience so far.
“My advice to teachers interested in doing this is, look up Boundless Life and consider the possibilities!” she says.
“I really enjoy the work I’m doing – it’s so rewarding. I can differentiate (the learning) for each student in each lesson so I can give them what they need,” she adds.
She also has sage advice for teachers who have not yet tried Makers Empire.
“If you are new to Makers Empire, the teacher dashboard has all the training you need, and creating an account and completing the training, just like the kids do, is a fun way to learn,” she says.
Her efforts have not gone unnoticed by the school community.
“Here, I have parents telling me, ‘even in only eight weeks, this has changed (with their child).’ So that’s wonderful,” she says, proudly.
“The families are impressed to hear their children talking so confidently about the UN SDG goals and being able to express their ideas in 3D with Makers Empire. The families also loved being able to see their kids designs in AR, which is a fantastic Makers Empire feature,” she adds.
She has also sparked the interest of fellow colleagues to use Makers Empire’s 3D design tools to enhance learning in the classroom.
“Yesterday, my colleague asked me, ‘can you teach me (Makers Empire) so I can do it with my students?’” she says, happily.
Thanks for sharing your Makers Empire story with us, Sophie. We look forward to hearing more about your travels and teaching experiences!
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