Melissa Schaper

With experience as a public school teacher, preschool teacher, kids director at my church, and now a full time content creator I have a variety for skills and passions that align with the vision of TpT! I love creating content for kids to help them learn everything from their letters and colors, to reading, to writing, and more! More details about me and my experience.... Founder & Author of Edlah.com: I have been creating for and operating edlah.com and this TpT store since I started writing curriculum and creating custom resources back and 2012. TeachersPayTeachers and Edlah are my favorite hobbies and side hustles! But how did I get here you ask? Keep reading! My Childhood/Teen Years: I feel in love with teaching when I was still a kid myself. I use to help my mom teach kids classes and children's church at our church growing up. I enjoyed helping her, but really fell in love with teaching when I was 12 years old and given my own little class of 1st and 2nd graders to lead during our Wednesday night kids church programing. From then I was hooked and when I was eventually old enough went off to college to get my Education Degree and License. In college I taught swim lessons, worked in a couple different learning centers, and taught at an after school program where I got to create my own enrichment classes. To say I was hooked on content creation would be an understatement! First Grade Teacher: In 2006 I began teaching first grade in an urban public school in Kansas City, Kansas. My favorite part was teaching kids to read! I loved watching them go from hardly being able to find their own name in writing to reading chapter books in just a handful of months! Knowing that their are fully functional adults walking around that I taught how to read still blows my mind. I loved the adventure of teaching but missed my own little babies at home. Preschool Teacher: In 2011 I decided that it would be best for me and my family if I switched to teaching part-time. I moved to teach preschool in a private Christian Preschool and very quickly fell in love with not only early childhood education but also writing curriculum and creating resources on a whole new level! When my kids were toddlers and preschoolers we would come home in the afternoons and try out all of my curriculum whims and ideas at home before trying them in my classroom. Eventually, I created an awesome Preschool Curriculum that I am very proud of! Preschool Curriculum Developer: When I began teaching preschool in 2011, I created and tested all of my own curriculum (the beauty of a private school). It was fun to write curriculum, test it with my own kids at home, and then use the ideas and activities in my preschool classroom the following week. It was fun to have a unique perspective in both the classroom and home learning environments when starting out on this new journey creating curriculum and resources to sell. Nursery Director & Event Childcare Coordinator: In 2016 I took on a part time job as the Nursery Director and Event Childcare Coordinator at Grace Church in Overland Park, Kansas. This opportunity allowed me to lead an amazing team of about 90ish volunteers and 50ish paid event childcare workers! It was a fun new experience leading them as they cared for and taught our 75-100 babies and toddlers each weekend. I loved my awesome team! I enjoyed this adventure leading adults and teens to love, care for, and teach these little kiddos ages 0-35 months! In this role I got to help with the nursery curriculum creation as I learned about this new type of hands-on curriculum for tiny people. Early Childhood Specialist: In 2020 I then moved into a brand new position at Grace Church in Overland Park, Kansas working as the Early Childhood Specialist for their Kid's Campus Support team. In this role I got to oversee the development of curriculum & resources for ages 0-Kindergarten for our 3 campuses. Campus Support Director: In 2023, my amazing director retired (sad day) and I moved into me current position as the Grace Kids Campus Support Director. This amazing team I now lead develops and creates our own custom curriculum for ages birth-4th grade for not only our weekend services at our 3 campuses, but also all of our kids classes, events, VBS, Summer Camps, and more. This is my absolute dream job!!! I can't believe they are paying me to do what I already was doing for fun as a hobby here on TpT! I hope to be in this role for a long time while also continuing to create fun resources for my TpT store in my free time. I have the best job and the best hobby!