Urgency in a Slow System: Teaching with Intention Behind the Fence
Teaching with intention in a system that moves at a glacial pace is an art…one in which correctional educators are masters!
This Is Not a Regular Classroom (And That’s Okay)
There’s a moment in nearly every correctional educator’s journey when we look around our classroom—maybe mid-lockdown, mid-lesson, or mid-crisis—and think: This is not a regular classroom.
What We Miss When We Only Measure GEDs
Diplomas are a cause for celebration, no argument! But here’s the thing: if we only measure GEDs, we’re missing the deeper, quieter, harder-won successes.
Work-Ready but Not Life-Ready: Rethinking Our Approach to Employment Prep
When we assume people already know how to navigate life outside, we set them up. Teaching life-readiness is about equity. It’s about recognizing gaps in opportunity, exposure, and expectation—and doing something about it.
The Frontline of Hope: A Tribute to Correctional Educators
Correctional educators are often the unsung heroes of the education world. Often unrecognized, under-resourced, and faced with impossible odds, they show up, day after day, in one of the most challenging environments imaginable—and they teach.
Retreat, Reflect, Return
Our incarcerated students carry stories that matter. They deserve programming that respects their potential and sees their humanity. And the people doing that work—you, me, the folks showing up in prisons and jails with lesson plans and heart? We need care, too.
Mental Health in the Margins
Mental health in corrections can’t be an afterthought. It can’t live in the margins. When we invest in mental wellness—for students and staff—we’re not just making people feel better. We’re creating safer environments. We’re improving outcomes. We’re building communities that don’t have to keep coming back through the revolving door.
What We Plant Today: Spring Lessons from Correctional Classrooms
Spring reminds us that growth is never instant. It’s a slow, steady push upward. A process. A promise.
☕ Sunday Morning Coffee: Passion Projects & Prison Classrooms
Nurturing passion is one of the most important gifts we can give a young person. And that’s true whether they're in a suburban high school, a GED program in jail, or a reentry support group in a halfway house.
Why Motivation and Engagement Are Essential in Correctional Education
Education is a proven pathway to opportunity, but for justice-impacted learners, staying motivated and engaged presents unique challenges. Technology can open the door to motivation, inspiration, and aspiration for these learners!
The Importance of a Work Community
Community isn’t just a noun—it’s something you do.
Supporting Student Wellbeing
Every educator—whether in a traditional classroom or behind the walls of a correctional facility or at their dining room table—knows that student wellbeing is the foundation for meaningful learning.
Prison Labor: Exploitation or Opportunity?
Every so often, the topic of prison labor comes up in the national conversation, and it’s usually framed as one of two extremes: either a modern form of slavery or a valuable rehabilitative tool. Like most things in life (and in corrections), the reality is more complex. So, grab your coffee, and let’s take a balanced look at the pros and cons of incarcerated labor.
The Ripple Effect of Wellbeing
When we nurture wellbeing in ourselves, it extends outward—to our colleagues, our students, and our communities.
From the Classroom to the Cellblock: How Educators Can Collaborate with Correctional Systems
By sharing strategies, collaborating across systems, and advocating for policies that prioritize education over incarceration, educators can help reduce recidivism and create pathways for success.
How Teacher Perceptions Shape Student Outcomes
For students, particularly those from marginalized communities, the impact of these biases can be life-altering, affecting everything from disciplinary actions to academic success.
The Stories We Tell: How Society Shapes History to Serve Its Ideology
More often than not, the way we remember and teach history serves a very particular ideology, one that upholds systems of power and oppression.
Students with Disabilities: A Hidden Population in the School-to-Prison Pipeline
The school-to-prison pipeline disproportionately impacts students with disabilities, yet their experiences are often overlooked in discussions about educational inequities and justice reform.
Dyslexia Behind Bars
Sunday Morning Coffee: Did you know that nearly half of the incarcerated population may be living with dyslexia?
Compliance vs Engagement
Teachers are always balancing the need for student compliance while striving for engagement.