Chocolate Fantasy

Beta members participated in the recent YWCA fund raiser. Jolyn Krabbenhoft (above) worked at the registration table at the Chocolate Fantasy event. Debbie Boyer served chili and Connie Knain dished up trays of chocolate goodies.

DKG Educator's Book Award

Dignity by Donna Hicks is the 2012 Educator's Book Award winner as announced at the International Convention in New York City. Her remarks on the experience of meeting 2000 women educators make every member proud to be in DKG and proud to be an educator.

Should Beta consider a chapter read and discussion?



From Donna Hicks' blog:

Educators Embrace Dignity

JULY 27, 2012 BY DR. DONNA HICKS 

Nearly 2,000 women from around the world gathered in New York this week for Delta Kappa Gamma’s (DKG) bi-annual convention.  The organization, which started in 1929, is a society of women educators dedicated to promoting professional and personal growth and excellence in education.  I attended the convention because my book, Dignity:  The Essential Role it Plays in Resolving Conflict, was selected for the DKG Educators Book Award.  While I have received other awards for my book, this one was particularly poignant.

I have never been in a situation with a room filled with 2,000 women dedicated to the pursuit and advancement of knowledge.  They were all there because they love teaching, they love seeing the lights go on in their students’ eyes when they learn something new.  They love that they may make a difference in the lives of those they nurture and inform.  They are committed to the idea that ignorance is societies worst enemy and they do what they do, not for the recognition, but because they know it is a powerful way to create change in the world.

I had so many conversations about dignity while I was there.  Teachers know dignity from the inside out.  I had a brief encounter with one woman who said that the first thing she does with her students (she works in an economically deprived area) is to bolster their dignity.  She said she might not have used the word before hearing me talk, but she knows now that she is helping them restore their sense of value and worth long before she starts her formal instruction with them.  Her basic message was that they need her care and attention before they can feel safe enough to open themselves to learning.

What I felt most strongly after my time with these women is that the dignity approach I have taken in my work has its foundation in self-knowledge.  If we don’t help our students recognize that they are worthy, no matter what; no matter how badly someone has treated them, we are not doing our job. Letting them know that dignity is part of our DNA, but it is just as vulnerable to being injured as the rest of our bodies.

Helping students realize that no one can take away their dignity—it is always in their hands—is a first step in healing their early wounds; dignity wounds that create so much self-doubt.  Getting them to recognize that because someone treated them badly doesn’t mean they are bad; it means that something bad has happened to them.

My time with the women reinforced the idea that the Dignity Model is an educational approach that has healing qualities.  I resist the idea that it is “therapy” because I am sharing knowledge with people that embodies a truth about them, no matter who they are.  And the truth is that every one of us is born invaluable, priceless and irreplaceable. This knowledge not only has the potential to set us free, but has the power to rehabilitate our aching humanity.

Dr Hicks: The Right to Dignity – A Model of Understanding

Published Wednesday, 6th July, 2011 | By Susan AKA Peacefull

This is an excellent paper from Harvard University, written by Dr. Donna Hicks. It includes a detailed outline/description of her model.

When I experienced conflict and was not treated fairly or with respect (stonewalling), definitely my dignity was deeply offended. So I ask people, even if you don’t agree with someone or don’t like them, please treat every person as you would want them to treat you, with dignity and respect. Don’t allow any person to suffer for any length of time, you do deep damage to them. So many disputes are left unresolved and the person suffers the rest of their lives. The end of the paper speaks of an apology, interestingly it is to gain your own dignity. So many these days don’t say sorry just avoid or ignore the issue. In the future dignity will be a fact of life and we will never violate others, as we will see them as ourselves.

Live in peace and dignity. I send you a smile.

the book, DIGNITY is available at Amazon in hardcover and Kindle formats or at Barnes and Noble in hardcover and Nook formats.

State Workshop Held in Rugby

Lambda Chapter hosted the 2012 Alpha Omicron State Workshop in Rugby, the Geographical Center of North America.  The workshop featured an old fashioned picnic, sessions on state committee reorganization, THAT, and SAT, and night on the town choices of a Victorian Dress Museum, Prairie Museum, or winery. A silent auction and door prizes added to the fun. Beta members, Connie Knain, Yvonne Timian, Debbie Boyer and Verna LaBounty attended the two-day workshop.  Featured speaker, Debbie Boyer, presented "The New 3R's of Learning with the Nurtured Heart Approach."

Becky Anhorn, state president, confers with Lambda members.

Beta President Yvonne Timian received
the chapter flag from outgoing
 president, Connie Knain.

Debbie Boyer

Connie Knain and Verna LaBounty are ready to picnic!

Door prizes

Silent auction bidding on  baskets

Preparations Made for June Workshop

 Beta Chapter members, Connie Knain, Debbie Boyer, and Verna LaBounty enjoy fellowship at Connie's condo before preparing the basket for the silent auction and the cairn to be used for offering chapter gifts at the Birthday Luncheon.

Working together makes memories that cement relationships between  Delta Kappa Gamma sisters.

New Beta Initiate

At the May meeting Beta Chapter initiated WooMi Phillips as its newest member.















The initiation ceremony is followed by Beta members offering congratulations to WooMi.

Beta Sisters Retire

   

  Beta sister, Yvonne Timian is retiring after 34 years of teaching. She began her teaching career north of Dunseth, ND. It was here she started with the Head Start program, and has taught 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th grade as well as gifted students since that first year. Over these years she has seen many changes in the field of education but sees counselors being placed in each elementary, AND “Odyssey of the Mind” as two major accomplishments. When she looks back over the years, she thinks most of the kids. The first grader, for example, cried because she couldn’t read but later went on to become a teacher.
     During these years Yvonne has been an active member of her church participating in music leadership, Bible studies and retreats , and trips to Guatemala and Mexico for servant events. She has been involved in numerous professional groups, and has volunteered in many ways in her community . Congratulations Yvonne! Best of luck in your retirement!

    

   Ginger Deitz has held numerous positions in Beta Chapter including the office of president. She has been an active member, presenter, and board member of the ND Reading Association, has been on the ND Ag in the Classroom Advisory Council, board member of the YWCA, President of the Council for Exceptional Children … to name a few of the professional associations she has actively belonged to. She is also known for being an active volunteer in her community, and church.
   Ginger started teaching in 1971 at the Wahpeton Indian School as a Special Education Teacher and has taught in the classroom setting throughout the subsequent years. She has been recognized with many awards such as 2001 NDEA Teacher of the Year, 2005 Navigator Award from ND Project WET, 2008 Teacher of the Year by the ND Newspaper Association. Needless to say, Ginger is a dedicated educator and will continue touching lives with her many talents during her retirement.

Author Reads at Zandbroz

Sarah Yates, an author from Winnipeg and friend of Ann Braaten, will be here next week to read from her new young adult reader novel, "Lucky Lou Gets Game."  The central character is a young woman with cerebral palsy who overcomes many challenges to get her neighborhood to support her effort of having a wheel chair accessible ramp built to make their house accessible.  The book does a wonderful job of letting the reader know what it is like to have cerebral palsy and works to empower people with disabilities.  

Zandbroz Variety

420 Broadway N.

Fargo, ND

701-239-4729 

Thursday,

March 22, 2012

6:30 p.m.