About Shem Spillane
I teach children to trust the English they already have—and build from there.
Hi, I’m Shem.
I’m a Canadian English communication coach living near Quito, Ecuador. I have worked with young English learners online since 2020 and completed more than 6,000 classes.
ThinkSpeak grew from thousands of small moments: a child reading every word but unable to explain the idea; a bright student freezing when a question changed; a memorized response arriving before the child had truly understood what was asked.
I began slowing down. I asked better follow-up questions. I gave children time to think. And I watched their real personalities begin to appear in English.
That is the heart of ThinkSpeak: not putting words into a child’s mouth, but helping them discover that they have something worth saying.
Experience & training
Human connection, backed by experience.
What I believe
Children communicate best when they feel both safe and capable.
Curiosity beats correction alone.
A thoughtful question often teaches more than immediately supplying the right answer.
Mistakes are information.
They show us how a student is thinking and what support will unlock the next step.
Personality belongs in English.
The goal is not a perfect little script. It is a real child expressing a real idea.