In the heart of Coppell High School room B112, “Mozart’s Requiem,” streaming from the desk of math teacher Karie Kosh, echoes as students work on their assignments.

When she was in fifth grade, Kosh joined an after school string program in her hometown of Houston, where she fell in love with the cello.

“The options were the violin, viola or cello, and I thought the violin and viola were too squeaky so I picked the cello,” Kosh said. “It was that profound of a decision, and I’ve stayed with it ever since.”

After playing the cello throughout high school, Kosh carried her passion to Texas A&M University, where she pursued teaching.

“My mom and grandmother were both teachers, but the person who made the biggest impact on me was my high school biology teacher,” Kosh said. “She was a no-nonsense type of woman and had incredibly high standards for us, but she inspired me to conquer difficult tasks with confidence.”

After teaching in Houston for two years, a catholic school for five years and 18 years at CHS, Kosh strives to instill those same values in her students.

“I’ve gotten loads of gifts from my students with the words ‘I’m not a nice person’ written on them because I tell them exactly that,” Kosh said. “Nice means I do what you want me to do and that’s not my job. I think it’s important to be kind, respectful and to have integrity, but both AP and IB have an incredibly rigorous curriculum and my job is to prepare my students properly by giving them the tools and traits to succeed.”

Although Kosh has been teaching math in CHS for nearly two decades, she has recently begun teaching AP Precalculus – a relatively new AP course with minimal instructional information.

“I was teaching honors precalculus for a long time and last year was my first year teaching AP,” Kosh said. “These last two years, I have had to work pretty hard to get AP Precalculus off the ground. It’s definitely a step up.”

To prepare her students for success, Kosh feels it is important to improve her skills and work just as hard as her students.

“I try to give them as much practice as possible, but I also do a lot of math myself to see how they may understand it,” Kosh said. “I try to work problems out in multiple different ways to make sure I can explain concepts to students in other ways if they don’t understand it the first time.”

Fellow CHS AP Precalculus teacher William Harrington-Pham admires Kosh’s professional demeanor and commitment.

“I met Mrs. Kosh informally when we had professional development during COVID-19,” Harrington-Pham said. “We got put into a breakout room on Zoom and she seemed really smart but humble. I was blown away because I don’t think I’ve ever interacted with someone with a similar personality. Over the years, I’ve definitely learned a lot from her.”

Harrington-Pham piloted AP Precalculus with Kosh and credits her with taking the lead to move the course in the right direction.

“The ideas she comes up with and activities she develops are amazing. A lot of the time, I find myself thinking ‘How does she come up with this?’ and I take a lot of her ideas and try to make them my own,” Harrington-Pham said. “She’s very creative and has a plethora of resources for her students.”

Students appreciate Kosh’s willingness to work with all her students and approach problems from all angles.

”AP Pre-Calculus is my first math AP and Mrs. Kosh has helped a lot with the transition,” sophomore Mirudhula Mani said. “If the class is struggling, she finds a different way to solve problems or makes videos explaining the process. She provides us with a lot of resources.”

Apart from helping her students academically, Kosh maintains a sense of normalcy in her classroom.

“When something happens in our community or in the world, it’s hard to settle in and work on things in the classroom,” Kosh said. “I don’t force my kids to talk about their emotions, rather I provide them with a safe space to keep moving forward.”

CHS Principal Laura Springer admires Kosh’s dedication to teaching and her character towards faculty and students.

“Mrs. Kosh loves precalculus like nobody’s business,” Springer said. “She’s taught and trained many other teachers with that passion for years, and works well with our staff. She wants her students to act with a certain level of discipline and dignity, and she doesn’t put up with lazy people. She loves her students, she loves teaching and she perfectly fits the values we want at CHS.”

Above all else, Kosh wants her students to leave her classroom with more than just math knowledge.

“I want my students to understand that being able to see things from a different perspective is powerful and having humility is just as important as having confidence,” Kosh said. “There is always room to get better at new things.”

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