Julie is most passionate about individual and collective practices that develop student learner dispositions and student clarity. She has designed learning, using appreciative inquiry, to lead her school in developing commitments to take dispositional learning and clarity school wide. She led school staff in implementing learning walks to systematically collect student voice in these areas. These school systems were designed to not only build the visible learner, but also deprivatize practice and build collective teacher efficacy. Alongside teacher leaders, she also developed school wide systems to collectively develop teacher instructional practice by implementing instructional rounds and peer to peer observation. She has also supported district instructional coaches in developing similar school wide systems designed to enhance commitment rather than compliance.
Julie Matsushita lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband and two daughters. She is a current instructional coach at a K-5 school in in the West Ada School District. Throughout her years as an instructional coach, she has partnered with teachers in her building to implement various instructional strategies, including strategies from Jim Knight’s High Impact Instruction, various questioning and student discourse techniques, and John Hattie’s Visible Learning and Teaching. Her passion is partnering in learning with teachers to build student ownership of learning. Working right alongside teachers with their students is when the research truly translates into teacher practice resulting in the ultimate goal of greater student learning.
Throughout her career, Julie Matsushita has served students as an elementary teacher, a reading and math interventionist at both elementary and middle school levels, and district assessment coach. She has provided support to preservice teachers as a Boise State University liaison. She holds a master’s degree in literacy from Boise State University.
