Sue Kenoyer
New York State President
2019-2021
"DKG: Opportunities for Dialogue, Knowledge and Growth"
New York State President-Elect Sue Kenoyer’s Message
To the President’s Banquet at the 2019 New York State Convention
27 April 2019
To the President’s Banquet at the 2019 New York State Convention
27 April 2019
I hope you have had a great convention conversing, learning things at our workshops, and growing as a
person and teacher. I wish I could have split into several people so that I could have attended more of the
workshops! But life is full of choices, and I want to thank you for the choice you made today to elect me
as your president for the next biennium. I promise I will do my best to carry out the duties of the job
within the constraints of my family and work life.
How many of you have stopped to read the comment cards on the trifold by the registration table? You
were asked to write down what you hoped to get from your membership when you decided to join DKG. I
think the original idea for this collection of comments came from the Executive Committee, and then the
Membership Committee took over the job of creating and advertising it. When I first heard the idea I was
struck by how well it fit into my idea for a theme for a New York State Biennium: DKG: Opportunities
for Dialogue, Knowledge, and Growth.
If you haven’t read the card I posted it says: I hoped for opportunities, in a friendly atmosphere, to
discuss educational issues, share best practices, and generally increase my knowledge of mathematics and
great lesson plans in order to grow as a teacher and as a person. (Yes, I had trouble fitting it on the card.)
I have to say that I love teaching. I love the interaction with students, the chance to share ideas with
them, and to watch them grow to become good thinkers. After all, you may have noticed the quote from
Albert Einstein in the program for the Birthday Luncheon: “The value of education is not … the learning
of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from
textbooks.” When I joined DKG in 1995, it was at the invitation of another math teacher from my school.
She explained about the Society and its seven purposes, and that they went to lunch. I was immediately
interested. If they supported those seven purposes then there must be opportunities for me to talk with
other teachers about the things I was interested in. There would be chances to learn about great lesson
plans for teaching factoring or solving equations or the Mean Value Theorem, and I could share my own
successes. I joined and met many other teachers of all levels from other schools in the area. I found those
opportunities that I was looking for in DKG. A few years after I joined, Jane Tanner’s convention was in
Lake Placid and I found a whole other level to DKG. That meeting was the start of my attending Area
Council meetings, state level meetings, Northeast regional meetings, and International meetings. Every
time I found women who were as interested in conversation about educational issues as I was. I found
great workshops and speakers to inspire me, women to admire, and strong and effective role models, all
of which have helped me to learn and grow. I saw personal Opportunities for Dialogue, Knowledge, and
Growth through life-long learning.
I think we should all aspire to be life-long learners. For many years, to me that meant I wanted to
learn more about the mathematics I was teaching, ways to get that information to students, but maybe
most importantly how to convince my students that it really wasn’t the final correct answer I was the most
interested in. Instead, as Einstein suggested, I wanted them to convince me, beyond the shadow of a
doubt, that their answer was the correct one and that they had thought through the concepts and how to
apply them to reach that answer. Even now after 42 years teaching math at all levels I still love to learn
things that will help me be a better teacher, or – as I like to think of myself – a classroom leader. Now
that I am semi-retired (if you can say I am semi-retired with 160 students this semester), I am also looking
for knowledge in other areas. My husband and I took up square dancing, I take classes in making jewelry,
I take classes in gardening, and we travel. I am a life-long learner and DKG has been a big part of that
experience. I think that DKG has offered me opportunities for life-long learning and educational
discussions which have contributed greatly to my growth as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a
colleague, a teacher, and as a DKG member.
As a State we recently celebrated our DKG membership, and I certainly celebrate my membership in
DKG. A large part of this celebration includes my involvement in the activities of this Society, along
with my support of its programs and positions on issues. During this last Biennium we have looked at the
connections we have, others we may need to improve, and some we need to make. Now I propose that
we go one step further and make sure we use our membership at every level of DKG to provide
opportunities for DIALOGUE, KNOWLEDGE and GROWTH.
Thank you so much for your attention tonight and I invite you, whether you are retired or not, to put
DKG: Opportunities for Dialogue, Knowledge and Growth, to work for you.
person and teacher. I wish I could have split into several people so that I could have attended more of the
workshops! But life is full of choices, and I want to thank you for the choice you made today to elect me
as your president for the next biennium. I promise I will do my best to carry out the duties of the job
within the constraints of my family and work life.
How many of you have stopped to read the comment cards on the trifold by the registration table? You
were asked to write down what you hoped to get from your membership when you decided to join DKG. I
think the original idea for this collection of comments came from the Executive Committee, and then the
Membership Committee took over the job of creating and advertising it. When I first heard the idea I was
struck by how well it fit into my idea for a theme for a New York State Biennium: DKG: Opportunities
for Dialogue, Knowledge, and Growth.
If you haven’t read the card I posted it says: I hoped for opportunities, in a friendly atmosphere, to
discuss educational issues, share best practices, and generally increase my knowledge of mathematics and
great lesson plans in order to grow as a teacher and as a person. (Yes, I had trouble fitting it on the card.)
I have to say that I love teaching. I love the interaction with students, the chance to share ideas with
them, and to watch them grow to become good thinkers. After all, you may have noticed the quote from
Albert Einstein in the program for the Birthday Luncheon: “The value of education is not … the learning
of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from
textbooks.” When I joined DKG in 1995, it was at the invitation of another math teacher from my school.
She explained about the Society and its seven purposes, and that they went to lunch. I was immediately
interested. If they supported those seven purposes then there must be opportunities for me to talk with
other teachers about the things I was interested in. There would be chances to learn about great lesson
plans for teaching factoring or solving equations or the Mean Value Theorem, and I could share my own
successes. I joined and met many other teachers of all levels from other schools in the area. I found those
opportunities that I was looking for in DKG. A few years after I joined, Jane Tanner’s convention was in
Lake Placid and I found a whole other level to DKG. That meeting was the start of my attending Area
Council meetings, state level meetings, Northeast regional meetings, and International meetings. Every
time I found women who were as interested in conversation about educational issues as I was. I found
great workshops and speakers to inspire me, women to admire, and strong and effective role models, all
of which have helped me to learn and grow. I saw personal Opportunities for Dialogue, Knowledge, and
Growth through life-long learning.
I think we should all aspire to be life-long learners. For many years, to me that meant I wanted to
learn more about the mathematics I was teaching, ways to get that information to students, but maybe
most importantly how to convince my students that it really wasn’t the final correct answer I was the most
interested in. Instead, as Einstein suggested, I wanted them to convince me, beyond the shadow of a
doubt, that their answer was the correct one and that they had thought through the concepts and how to
apply them to reach that answer. Even now after 42 years teaching math at all levels I still love to learn
things that will help me be a better teacher, or – as I like to think of myself – a classroom leader. Now
that I am semi-retired (if you can say I am semi-retired with 160 students this semester), I am also looking
for knowledge in other areas. My husband and I took up square dancing, I take classes in making jewelry,
I take classes in gardening, and we travel. I am a life-long learner and DKG has been a big part of that
experience. I think that DKG has offered me opportunities for life-long learning and educational
discussions which have contributed greatly to my growth as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a
colleague, a teacher, and as a DKG member.
As a State we recently celebrated our DKG membership, and I certainly celebrate my membership in
DKG. A large part of this celebration includes my involvement in the activities of this Society, along
with my support of its programs and positions on issues. During this last Biennium we have looked at the
connections we have, others we may need to improve, and some we need to make. Now I propose that
we go one step further and make sure we use our membership at every level of DKG to provide
opportunities for DIALOGUE, KNOWLEDGE and GROWTH.
Thank you so much for your attention tonight and I invite you, whether you are retired or not, to put
DKG: Opportunities for Dialogue, Knowledge and Growth, to work for you.
