Henrico's Top Teachers – Elise Matsuura, Kaechele Elementary School

As a second-grader in Mrs. Bruce’s class at Short Pump Elementary School, Elise Matsuura had one of the best years of her young life. She marveled at the way her teacher’s handwriting always seemed so perfect and how she cleaned the chalkboard in a very specific and equally impeccable way every time – but mostly she recalls how everyone in the class felt included.

The latter is a lesson she strives to convey to her own second-graders at Kaechele Elementary School these days. She views the grade as each student's’ “last year of being a little kid” and wants to ensure that it’s as positive for them as hers was for her.

“I hope my kids look back and say ‘that was a great year,’” she said.

Matsuura, who is in her first year at the school following four and-a-half at Ratcliffe Elementary in Eastern Henrico, connects with her students by asking questions about their lives and interests, their likes and dislikes. It’s paid off.

“For our son, Miss Matsuura has taken time to meet with him outside of class time,” one parent wrote in a nomination letter. “They have developed a special bond to assist him with his neurodiversity. She connects with him, they laugh, they talk, they draw, and brainstorm. All the while he his growing a stronger and stronger bond with her so that they build respect for one another. He trusts her, and as a result of that trust performs so much better. He wants to do good for her. He wants to be the best he can be.

“He is usually the child that is labeled troubled or bad, and this year he is determined to make a difference. She has helped him work through his diversity to see it, to harness it and use it as a super power!”

Matsuura places much emphasis on the mental well-being of her students, particularly during the pandemic, when many are in front of screens all day long.

“Sometimes I’ve told my children they need to walk away and come back,” she said. “If it’ll be there tomorrow, then sometimes you have to worry about it tomorrow. The mental health of our kids is the most important thing.”

Matsuura went to college at Virginia Tech planning to major in business, but a year later she transferred to VCU after realizing that she was meant to be in the business of teaching.

A mission trip to Hell's Kitchen in New York City to volunteer at a kids’ camp made that clear in her mind, and she spent her last three years of college working toward her new goal.

Now, she marvels at her own second-graders and how quickly they learn.

“You just see how much they mature and how articulate they become,” she said. “This growth and development is amazing to see. Their independence level goes up so much. Their brains are changing and developing."

Improving the way Henrico schools proactively address issues of equity and diversity in their classrooms has become a personal mission for Matsuura, who is half Japanese.

Moving from Ratcliffe, a school that serves a highly vulnerable and mostly Black community, to Kaechele, which serves generally a wealthy community of whites and Asians, awakened her fully to the topics and how they were or weren’t being addressed.

“I found myself disheartened by a lot of our curriculum,” she said.

Following the Atlanta-area murders of six Asian women earlier this year, she reached out to Henrico Superintendent Amy Cashwell and Chief Equity, Diversity and Opportunity Officer Monica Manns with some thoughts.

“I said we need to address this as a county,” she recalled. “A quarter of my students are Asian. I have taught mostly students of color. There’s not enough that we’re doing right now in pursuing anti-racist curriculum.”

The conversation proved fruitful, and Manns offered Matsuura a past-time summer position as a CREM (Culturally Responsive Education Model) coordinator, a role through which she hopes to help effect some of the changes she believes are necessary.

“I’m really excited for it,” she said. “I realized that was my niche was equitable teaching. I’ve realized some of my own biases that needed to be addressed [and wondered] why is our curriculum not being update to reflect our student body?”

Matsuura credited the school system and its leaders, who have sought to make equity and diversity a focal point of their recent efforts, with being willing to hear her input and that of others in an effort to improve.

“Henrico is just an amazing county for trying to be progressive,” she said.

Parents of her students find Matsuura to be equally amazing.

“Miss Matsuura has shown phenomenal strength, compassion, gratitude and love in a time when these second-graders needed it most,” one parent wrote. “She repeatedly let these kids know they were important, doing a great job and were loved. She would log on early and stay late to help and answer questions. She took parent phone calls and emails answering as swiftly as time allowed her. She connected with these kids. She built a relationship with them. She had them connecting with each other.

“She has been able to teach and grow these students in ways I am not sure anyone would have thought possible.”