Leaving here for good...

Well, my new hosting company allows me to blog directly on my site, so I'm moving over there permanently.
Check out the new blog here. I think I've moved most of the important posts over there.
Also, feel free to pop on by the main website too.

ESL Resources for Mothers

Many mothers have asked me what they can do to help their children learn English at home. I was always full of ideas and would just tell the mother whatever came to me at the moment.
Finally, I have made an entire section devoted to this on my website.
Check out ESL Resources for Mothers.

Teaching Adults?

Just in case you're a teacher of adults and you came across my site, I'd like to recommend another site that is more geared towards teaching adults.

ESL Tutor

This site also has a lot of teaching ideas and is a good resource, especially for teaching adults.

been moving, trying to get settled in...

sorry i haven't updated so long. i haven't added any new pages to the main site either.
i've moved from japan, got married in vegas, stayed with my mom for 2 and a half weeks, went on a hawaii cruise for our honeymoon, and now i'm getting settled in hawaii.
the place that we arranged to rent in hawaii is not working out, so we're looking for a new place. that's been pretty time consuming. i hate it. i really wish that this place had worked out...
but i hope to be back on track real soon with lots more ideas and updates for you.
love,
shannon sensei

more questions...

I've been getting a lot of great questions in to the "Ask Shannon Sensei" section of my website. If you've got a question, then pop on over and ask me.

Do I need a teaching degree to teach ESL?

How can I help my child learn ESL at home?

letting the cat out of the bag...

i'm leaving japan and moving to america at the end of the month. i've known this for awhile but i hesitated to write about it as i feared that doing so would somehow decrease my credibility. as in, if i'm not teaching full time, then what i have to say may be less important.
the good part about it is that i will still be teaching. my husband and i are starting a homestay program for mothers who want to come to hawaii. i will teach their kids in our home. i also will have a lot of time to work on the official teach esl to kids website. which is a good thing because i still have so many things to add to it, but just haven't had the time.

recently, someone asked a question using the ask shannon sensei feature on that website about how to find a teaching job in japan. i think that my response was pretty good, so if you're looking for info about how to find a teaching job in japan, click here.

how cute...

yesterday, one of my students' mother showed me pictures of the little girl at home "playing shannon".
she was sitting on a stool (usually japanese people would sit on the floor) and had a book in her hands that she was showing to some "students". especially cute was that her legs were crossed the way i would do. haha.
and then her mother also told me that the pants she's wearing in the picture are her favorite pants because they look like a style of pants that i wear. so cute.
all of the kids in the class have been recently imitating me. they like to play with the puppets and ask each other questions (the older ones will even prompt the younger ones with the right answer if necessary). and then when the other student answers, they'll go "yay!" the same way that i would. makes me so happy.