Mindi Vogel

As I enter my tenth year as an educator, I find myself more passionate than ever. I am profoundly lucky to find myself at Polaris K-12 School in Anchorage, Alaska. Our mission statement calls us to create an environment challenging students, teachers and parents to personal excellence, lifelong learning, and ethical responsibility to self, community, and world. Over the last seven years, this call to action has seeped into my bones. I am encouraged by my students and colleagues to question the status quo of public education. At Polaris we have agency. For one, we get to decide how we spend our time. For example, this year we are introducing a new block schedule, which will present challenges for both students and teachers. If we are purposeful, the challenge I’m speaking of will not be because of the new organization of time; more deeply, the new organization of time will require us to ask each other some important questions:

• What is worth knowing?
• How is our school helping us to engage in the art and science of asking questions?
• How are our classrooms designed to help us learn how to think?
• Is what is being taught purposeful to the lives our students?

In addition to finding merit in expansive class times, we are also experimenting with inquiry-based courses, intentional peer and teacher feedback, and alternative assessments. This year, we are taking risks, challenging the status quo, putting research to the test, and collaboratively reflecting on the craft of teaching.

On a personal note, I am married to Adam, an Electrical Engineer. We live in Eagle River where we raise chickens, have a giant bloodhound labrador dog named Wilson, and find play on the golf course. We also love to cook.

As a Co-director for the Alaska Writing Project, I am deeply committed to engaging in writing to deepen my classroom instruction. I write and reflect on the challenges and frustrations that we encounter as teachers in public education. You can read more about my philosophy of education and the trials I confront as I grapple with how to be the most effective educator I can be at www.mindivogel.com. 

My goal is to help empower teachers, parents, and students to advocate for meaningful education that honors the messiness, magic, and humanity of learning how to think, read, write, speak, and listen for the purpose of making the world a better place to live.