About Us      

Our Instructional Vision: Students demonstrate standards-based content expertise by engaging in structured collaboration with their peers while being given the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills through reading, writing, and inquiry activities.

A Gap in the System

Schools are doing their best, but with new initiatives every year, teacher burnout and constant turnover, it has become near impossible to create a consistent approach to classroom strategies and coaching.

We know there are best practices that are proven to be effective in building student understanding and skill set in the classroom, but how do we organize those practices? How do we ensure we have time to reflect? And how do we collect data to measure effectiveness?

Your Classroom Academy seeks to fill those gaps and answer those questions.

Compare the annual fee for providing consistent professional development to your entire staff with Your Classroom Academy ($5,000 - $7,500) to the average cost of sending one educator to an educational conference ($700 - $800 per person).

Meet the Founder

With over 15 years of experience in education and a strong academic foundation, Erica brings a passion for empowering teachers and leaders to create engaging, impactful learning environments. Erica holds two master’s degree in education and an administrative credential, which have shaped her expertise in instructional best practices and leadership development.

Erica has always had a passion for continuously learning about and refining classroom instruction. From her days teaching math and the AVID elective to middle school students, to becoming an instructional coach and specialist, she has always believed in the power of reflection when it comes to dynamic classroom teaching.

During a recent conversation with a district leader she heard the phrase “we’re trying to Tier 2 our way out of a Tier 1 problem” and this is exactly the challenge she is trying to address with Your Classroom Academy. Tier 1 systems would mean research-based strategies and best practices being used in every classroom across a campus, providing a foundational experience for each and every student. The challenge has always been how to implement such a system when educators and leaders have limited time to engage in professional development and refine classroom practices. She hopes that by embedding strategies and reflections on a weekly basis small changes will turn into large shifts towards aligned practices and engaged students.

Erica Levich

 FAQs

  • Professional development is difficult to do well even with systems in place. Your Classroom Academy offers structured and supported research-based strategies that intentionally develop teachers into instructional leaders. They’re no longer just delivering content, but facilitating learning in the classroom. Instead of professional development that happens once or twice a year, this weekly model allows for constant refinement and reflection. Administrators receive monthly data reports, walkthrough tools and professional learning all designed to support and refine the strategies being used by their educators. A wholistic approach to strategy alignment and refinement.

  • Your Classroom Academy stands out because it is a comprehensive, year-round professional development system designed to provide consistent, actionable support for teachers and administrators. Unlike traditional one-off workshops or trainings, our program offers weekly, research-based strategies that build on each other over the course of three years.

  • Asking teachers to engage in a weekly reflection satisfies two needs. The need for teachers to be reflecting and refining classroom practices, and the need for site leadership to gather and analyze data. Although this information is collected weekly, reports that highlight both quantitative and qualitative data will be sent to leadership on a monthly basis. Along with these report are aligned walkthrough tools to encourage schoolwide conversations specific to that month’s unit.

  • A range of strategies will be delivered throughout the year, but include resources that get students writing, speaking and interacting with content in multiple ways. Strategies will align with what is going on during that time in the school year. For example, before the school year begins each teacher will receive resources relevant to what happens during the first week of school: organization, strategies to get students to talk to and get to know one another, and information about growth mindset.

  • Yes! The strategies are differentiated for elementary teachers (grades 2 - 6) and secondary teachers (grades 7 - 12), with the hopes of continuing to add resources for educators in grades TK-1 in the future. The goal is to provide editable templates and resources so educators from any grade level or content area can modify their weekly strategy and apply it to their own classroom.

  • Yes! The fall semester is from August to December, the spring semester is from January to May. Educators may engage in either or both semesters and are able to purchase continuing education units for each. Teachers can buy one unit per semester, for a total of six units over the course of three years.

  • Teachers that are hoping to earn continuing education units are required to complete 80% of the feedback forms and unit self-assessments. However, teachers may decide how much the want to engage with the program. If they do not complete 80% of the feedback to show they understand how to implement the strategies, they will be invited to engage in the same year of Your Classroom Academy before they are able to move onto the next.

    Administrators are given a 15-20 minute professional development module to model at their monthly staff meeting. Like educators, it is up to the admin team to determine how much time they want to spend focusing on classroom instructional strategies. They’ll also receive walkthrough tools and data to support reflection for both administrators and teachers.