Hello everyone! My name is Shawna Peryea (pronounced pear-ee-ay…like the water) and welcome to Caffeinated and Creative. I am a former elementary school teacher that taught second and third grade. I now pour my heart into creating fun and engaging educational resources that are little to NO prep that helps to save you time!
My Journey
Growing up I knew I wanted to be a teacher. It sounds a little cliche, but among all my childhood dream jobs, teaching was always at the top of the list. My mom is a retired music teacher and there are several other teachers in the family as well. My dad works in the food industry and growing up he was renovating an old school house into a restaurant. I spent many hours playing school there with my sisters and friends.
I moved around a bit as a kid and while that could have been very hard, I had some amazing teachers that helped me. On my very first day at a new school, my fourth-grade teacher had the class make a welcome banner for me. It was then and there that I truly realized how much teachers can shape a child.
I graduated from Arizona State University in 2008 and was eager to get going with my teaching career. I scoured blogs (this was before Pinterest and other social media) and designed my ideal classroom. I even made a website BEFORE I even was hired. My blog became the basis for my classrooms and I spent my time teaching always having a garden theme.
I was hired right before the school year started as a second-grade teacher at a charter school. The first year was admittedly difficult, but I came to love the school, my coworkers, and definitely the kids! Over the next few years I worked at a few other charter schools and taught second or third grade the whole time. While I loved teaching, my heart wanted to do more!
As a teacher, I loved the creative aspects and organizing things. Making my own printables, tests, etc. was quite the norm. Several years ago I found Teachers Pay Teachers and it was a lifesaver! I spent hours deciding what I wanted to buy, and even more hours printing, laminating, and cutting out so many amazing products. Several friends suggested I try and make items for Teachers Pay Teachers, so here I am! I love that I am able to use my teaching experience, desire to learn and grow even more, and be creative! All while helping teachers all over the world!
My Mission for YOU
I know how busy teachers are and my goal is to make things so much more simple! I love to make thematic units and focus on integrating whatever the topic may be (Fall, Titanic, etc.) with a wide variety of concepts that touch on a multitude of standards. As a teacher, I was very organized and planned things well in advance in case I needed backups!
I often had copies made for the year (yes I was that teacher) because it made things so much easier. Most years I had students on different skill levels and it helped to be able to grab things as needed as students’ skills increased.
Creating themed units that can be used across different subjects can sometimes be difficult, but I love to make it easy for you guys! I also strive to incorporate writing into as many resources as I can. Teaching writing was always one of my favorite subjects! I loved seeing what children could create in their minds and how it transformed onto paper. This probably stemmed from my own love of writing as a kid.
Several schools I worked in did not have a great curriculum so I found myself making a lot of my own forms, printables, and even tests that complimented the reading curriculum. I now focus on learning what teachers want and most importantly, what makes their lives easier!
A Bit More About Me
A little bit more about me on a personal level. I met my husband online (don’t knock it until you try it) and we got married on our four-year anniversary in 2014. Shortly after our wedding, we both left our jobs and spent a year for ourselves. Using our honeymoon funds, we took a long European vacation and that started our travel bug!
Shortly after that in 2015 we started working for my husband’s dad’s bridge inspection company that travels around the states. My husband is pretty business savvy and so we joined the boat for a little while to help the business expand more. We got to travel to a lot of different places including Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Florida, and even a month in Alaska, all in the span of a couple of months. Needless to say, we love to travel!
Our traveling has dwindled down a bit as we both started our new careers, me working on Teachers Pay Teachers and him working in the tech industry. We both are self-proclaimed computer nerds (especially since we met online) and work on designing our own sites in our “free” time.
When I am not creating things for TPT or working on blogging, I like love to read! I love psychological thrillers, mysteries and anything that makes me want to stay up all night reading. I also adore Disney, Harry Potter and other geeky things, singing (in the car only), Netflix and playing with the four furbabies, The Aristocats (as I call them) and Wicket!
So sit back with a cup of coffee, tea, or other beverage of your choice and explore!
