Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award for Dr. Betina Hsieh
Congratulations to Dr. Betina Hsieh, Associate Professor, Teacher Education, who was awarded the College of Education Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award!
Sharing a favorite teaching moment from her classes, Dr. Hsieh described her closing activity at the end of each semester, dubbed the “web of learning.” This activity begins with one student who, while holding an end of a ball of yarn, “says one thing that they’re taking with them from [the] class or one thing they had previously believed that they’re leaving behind...When they’re done, they hold the end of the yarn, but throw the ball to someone else in the circle who shares using the same prompt. At the end, the ball of yarn comes to me, and I get to share my appreciation for the class and the symbolism of the activity, that the web we’ve made shows the connection that we’ve all built through learning together. Then I tell them that I will be cutting the yarn next, a symbol of the fact that though we may not be… in a room together again, we will all remain connected and take with us new learning from our time together.” Dr. Hsieh closes by giving her students a bookmark with a hole punched at the top for the yarn to be attached.
“I love this tradition because every semester when I Tweet my ball of yarn, some of my former students will Tweet me that they still have their string or that they do this activity to end the year with their students.”
