Student-Centered Coaching Through an MLL Lens

I didn't set out to become a coaching person, but somewhere between professional development sessions on cognitive coaching and student-centered coaching, something clicked — and I started wondering what this could look like for my MLL students. In this session, I'll share that journey, walk you through what a coaching cycle might look like, and give you some ideas about how to have a coaching conversation. Then we'll practice — on each other! Come ready to learn, reflect, and maybe laugh a little.

Presenters

Holly Marshburn

ES MLL Specialist
Shanghai American School

Holly has a growth mindset and an innate curiosity about the world. She's constantly pushing to find more by way of new challenges, ideas, and experiences. She has 30 years of PreK through adult teaching experience. She holds a BA in Spanish, MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and a doctorate (Ed.D.) in Instructional Technology and Distance Education. She worked in public schools in North Carolina, USA, before taking her first international position in 2015 in Moscow, Russia where she fell in love with the life! Her goals for this year include improving her coaching and co-teaching skills and enjoying China.

Lisa Emanuel

Instructional Coach
Shanghai American School

Lisa Emanuel has been an Instructional Coach for eight years, at Shanghai American School since 2023 and previously in Mexico and Nigeria. Her passions as an educator include the art of pedagogy, nurturing students’ love of self-expression, and supporting teachers in developing the skills that create a learning community full of joy and belonging. In addition to coaching for equity and access in all classrooms, she spent over a decade as a classroom teacher in multilingual elementary and middle schools in Chicago, Taipei, and Santiago. She holds a Master’s in Teaching, a Reading Specialist certification, and a Student-Centered Coaching certification.