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The New 3Rs Academic Transformation

The Right Systems, The Right Resources, The Right People

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The Inanity of Superintendent Salaries!
I was listening to a Malcom Gladwell podcast called “Revisionist History.” In season 5, there is a short episode entitled, “Hamlet was...
by Blaine Helwig
Mar 76 min read
179


Touch-Typing (Keyboarding): Importance and Pedagogy
Every elementary classroom teacher will always use a computer keyboarding program to train their children to learn to touch type. Why? ...
by Blaine Helwig
Feb 1716 min read
179


Fear of Failure Drives Change! (Or, It Should.)
Over the course of my life, I have engaged in deep thought about engineering, economic and educational processes; yet analytical thinking...
by Blaine Helwig
Sep 27, 20246 min read
311


School Systems: Physical, Social & Academic Processes
This blog is very long, but I hope it is helpful to teachers, administrators and educational advocates. Due to its length, I have also...
by Blaine Helwig
Sep 23, 202438 min read
228


Raising Outcomes: Dazed & Confused Continues!
Let’s begin our short chat with the reality of the professional world. When I was in my sixth year of teaching in 2001, my principal...
by Blaine Helwig
Jul 2, 20245 min read
352


Teacher Burnout – How to Stop It!
Professional frustration occurs in every job to varying degrees; however, I have never experienced the same levels of isolated...
by Blaine Helwig
Jun 12, 20249 min read
203


School Boards - Are the Key to Raising Academics!
Although I am ‘officially’ retired, I continue to regularly watch the televised local school board meetings. The experience can be both...
by Blaine Helwig
Mar 18, 202413 min read
370


Autonomy Comes with a Condition!
Several decades ago, I attended an August meeting with the associate superintendent of elementary schools in a large urban school...
by Blaine Helwig
Mar 6, 20249 min read
213


Academic Turn-around (MATH) - 'Do What Matters!'
There is a companion white paper to this blog that includes an executive summary. An interested educator may find that short...
by Blaine Helwig
Feb 4, 202411 min read
182


Responsibility and Authority – Public School Leadership
On the way back from Iowa last month – after visiting my elderly parents – my wife and I drove to Texas through Oklahoma via IH-35 south....
by Blaine Helwig
Nov 8, 202319 min read
103


Are You Trainable as an Educator?
Over the last four decades, I have come to realize that a myriad of qualitative evaluations are processed in real time during job...
by Blaine Helwig
Oct 3, 20235 min read
125


Impact of TEA's Open Education Resource - OER
In 2011, Senate Bill (SB) 6 was signed into law, and it permitted Texas school district administrators the freedom to choose their own...
by Blaine Helwig
Sep 19, 202311 min read
277


‘Writing’ – An Overlooked Learning Modality
There are four (4) primary ways humans of all ages learn selected skills or applications – thinking (metacognition) , talking, writing ,...
by Blaine Helwig
Sep 15, 202315 min read
245


The Accidental Principal
My wife and I just finished walking our third ‘El Camino’ in Spain three weeks ago. There are two major walking routes that stretch from...
by Blaine Helwig
Jul 28, 20239 min read
119


Preventing Numeracy Gaps from Forming
Numeracy gaps and literacy gaps are the two main academic hurdles in elementary schools, especially Title 1 campuses. Moreover, the...
by Blaine Helwig
Jul 19, 20236 min read
212


Managing Takes Effort!
My mother-in-law has long since retired, but she cleans a small two-story concrete supplier’s office every Friday to supplement her fixed...
by Blaine Helwig
Jul 8, 20236 min read
58


Job Title Fallacy Syndrome
If there is one assumed professional trait in public education, it is ‘expertise.’ Now, it is rarely spouted from within the teacher...
by Blaine Helwig
Jun 27, 202310 min read
88


Exploring Guided Novel Instruction (GNI) Pedagogy
Learning - any type of human learning - requires consistent practice and reflection to achieve proficiency at a given task. There must...
by Blaine Helwig
Apr 18, 20233 min read
115


Transitioning to the Digital/On-Line Testing World
The vast majority of states have moved toward digital standardized testing. They have done this for a couple reasons. First, MONEY! It...
by Blaine Helwig
Feb 21, 20238 min read
130


Solving Aimless "Therapeutic" School Meetings
Most professional people I know dislike meetings of any kind. As a matter of fact, one of my engineering colleagues once philosophically...
by Blaine Helwig
Jan 20, 20235 min read
133


Academic Gaps - Each Teacher Can't Do It Alone!
I am not a big volleyball fan. But, throughout my life, I played a lot of different sports and activities including volleyball. Last...
by Blaine Helwig
Dec 24, 20226 min read
196


Math Fact Mastery - Easy to Do!
On July 20th, 1969, mankind demonstrated the ability to place men on the Moon and bring them safely back to Earth. This space journey is...
by Blaine Helwig
Dec 15, 202238 min read
141


Independent Readers - Ultimate Literacy Goal!
Beginning in third grade, every Tuesday night, my mother would load my two brothers and me in the family car and drive us to the city...
by Blaine Helwig
Dec 5, 202217 min read
239


Why Does Failure Continue?
I find the title of this blog interesting because as humans – I would hope that when folks perform poorly at some manageable task or...
by Blaine Helwig
Nov 17, 20228 min read
428
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