Koss-Fillinger retiring from Kyrene School District

After more than three decades of teaching in the Kyrene School District Mark Koss-Fillinger is getting ready to move out of his fourth-grade classroom at Kyrene Monte Vista.

"I haven't been counting the days to retirement," he says, "but it is a little surreal."

Koss-Fillinger looks out proudly over a hive of busy children, designing and building cranes out of LEGOS. As he moves among the different teams, he is swarmed by his students. Two of them grab his hands and he holds them up.

"This is the best part of teaching," he says warmly. A slight Plains drawl and his relaxed demeanor belie his strong passions and convictions about the education of children; the long, grey ponytail hints that Koss-Fillinger is not one to conform.

After graduating high school in his hometown of Fremont, Neb., Koss-Fillinger joined the Marine Corps and was eventually stationed in Yuma.

"I entered the Marines not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. During my time in Yuma I coached city basketball," he remembers. "When I left the Marines I knew I wanted to work with kids."

Koss-Fillinger started his long career with Kyrene in September of 1974 teaching fourth grade on the old Kyrene campus at Warner and Kyrene roads when there were only two schools in the district. Two years later, he moved to Kyrene del Norte to teach third grade for four years.

Koss-Fillinger then left teaching for a five-year hiatus, but he knew he wanted to return to the classroom.

"I was born to teach fourth grade. There's something about that age - they are still so excited to learn," he says. "And they laugh at my jokes."

In 1985 Koss-Fillinger took a fourth-grade position at Kyrene de las Lomas. After three years at Lomas he moved to Kyrene Monte Vista when it opened in 1988 and has taught fourth grade there ever since.

"I feel so fortunate to both live and work in the Monte Vista community. It is an incredible place to work," Koss-Fillinger notes. "The Monte Vista parents are willing to help and support the school and teachers beyond belief. I have received such overwhelming support from this community."

He is retiring just shy of 20 years at Monte Vista, but intends to stay involved in the community through tutoring, substitute teaching and volunteer work.

"The hardest part of retirement will be not teaching kids," Koss-Fillinger said.

When asked about his legacy as a teacher, Koss-Fillinger hopes that he brought joy to his classroom and colleagues and that he will be remembered for having loved his students.

Love is the concept that guides his philosophy of teaching and how he chooses to run his classroom.

"For quite a few years now I have been working to implement a philosophy in my classrooms based on concepts of love: a love of teaching, a love of learning and, most certainly, a love of working with children," Koss-Fillinger writes on his classroom Web site. "There arises then the question of how this might be accomplished; what does this philosophy actually look like in a classroom? My thought is that it becomes apparent through the basic qualities like kindness and compassion, courtesy and friendship, and, above all, respect.

"So, in our classroom, these behaviors become paramount as we work together to become teammates, decision-makers and problem-solvers."

Koss-Fillinger strives to create a safe and secure environment where children are free to make mistakes and learn from them, and where fun and joy are part of their learning every day. On the wall behind his desk is a favorite quote that has been a guiding inspiration for him for many years: "Study depends on the goodwill of the student, a quality that cannot be secured by compulsion."

Indeed, he views himself as part of a triangle with children and parents, working together to raise citizens who can communicate, solve problems and work well with others.

Although he will miss being in the classroom, Koss-Fillinger is looking forward to the new rhythms of retired life.

"I'll be up early working in the garden with my wife, enjoying some breakfast and reading the paper and then off to other pursuits."

He hopes to take his life-long hobby and love of stamp collecting and build it into a profitable enterprise and, to that end, will be spending some time working in a friend's Scottsdale stamp shop.

Koss-Fillinger is also excited about developing an art career in water color illustration along with plans for travel, bird watching and staying active through hiking and boxing.

But, above all, Koss-Fillinger plans to find new ways to keep doing what he loves - teaching kids. In considering the question of legacy again, he offers this anonymous quote: "A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove ... but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child."

Koss-Fillinger's current fourth-grade class is hosting an open house from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20, at Thunderhill Park in honor of his retirement. The community is invited to join them in wishing him well.

Jennifer Zach lives in Ahwatukee Foothills with her husband and three children.