Burgess instructor retires after

33 years

By Jennifer Grybowski
Turley Publications Reporter

STURBRIDGE - Doris Sosik has spent 25 years teaching enrichment to Burgess Elementary School students. Ask those students, and they will say she truly enriched their lives. But ask Sosik, and she’ll say it’s the children that have enriched her. Sosik retired last month after 33 years of teaching.
“I’m very sad,” she said.
Sosik said she wrote her retirement letter in the fall.
“I knew if I started teaching, I would be unable to leave,” she said. “But it’s time for me to make room for something else. I’ve done this for almost 40 years.”
Sosik attended school in the Tantasqua/Union 61 district and earned her teaching certification at the University of Massachusetts. She began teaching the fourth grade in Ft. Benning, Ga., until she became pregnant with her first child.
“You could not teach if you were wearing maternity clothes then,” she said.
So she opted to take some time off to stay home with her four children and returned back to the area. She tutored children with learning disabilities for three years and earned a master’s degree from Clark University. She taught a self-contained behavioral class for two years and then fifth grade at Burgess Elementary.
She said school was always an important thing to her growing up. Neither of her parents were college educated. In fact, her mother was forced to leave high school at the age of 14 to go to work to help support her family.
“That made her very sad because she loved school,” Sosik said.
She said she was also inspired to teach by her seventh-grade English teacher, Roland Wilson, who went on to become superintendent of the Tantasqua/Union 61 school district.
“I respected him so much and he encouraged me to teach,” she said. “So that’s what I did. It goes to show what a tremendous effect one teacher can make in a person’s life. There are not that many jobs that you can say, ‘I really influenced people.’”
In teaching enrichment, half of her time was spent with wide groups. She worked with whole math, science, social studies or English classes.
“Every student gets here,” she said. “I can prepare in depth lessons for them. It’s quite fun.”
The other half of the time, she worked with children who are pulled out from class to receive mostly hands-on activities above and beyond what is going on in the classroom.
“It makes a big difference,” she said. “The kids love to come.”
The impact she has made on students’ lives was evident when she received a card from a former student, who had collected memories and well-wishes of many other former students.
“It is quite thrilling to hear from people,” she said.
Sosik said the biggest change she’s seen throughout the years is the onset of the MCAS testing.
“That really changed so much about education,” she said. “Everything we do has to meet standards – for good or bad. But we can take those standards and meet them in an innovative, unique way.”
She said what hasn’t changed, though, is the children.
“They are very excited to learn,” she said. “They want to please you.”
Those very children are the thing she has loved best about teaching.
“I love to get them excited about learning,” she said. “I like to have them come to this room with enthusiasm. This is a safe haven. I find that very gratifying.”
Burgess Elementary School has become a family affair for Sosik over the years. Her daughter, Amy, teaches fifth grade there and out of her 13 grandchildren, 10 live in town and have attended Burgess. In addition, Sosik has taught scores of students who are children of former students.
“I thought I’d better get out before I get the grandchildren,” she said with a smile.