The TIEL Curriculum Design model came from a question. As a teacher in a talented and gifted program, I wondered how to integrate the teaching of thinking and the social-emotional aspects of learning. In gifted education, the teaching of thinking received emphasis as did social emotional learning, but each was taught separately. During my doctoral work at Teachers College, Columbia University, I developed Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning (TIEL).

My research with four New York City elementary teachers showed that the TIEL Curriculum Design Wheel is a powerful planning tool that helps teachers and students become aware of a wide range of thinking and social-emotional processes that form the crux of 21st-century learning skills.  The TIEL model supported students in understanding their own learning, making them more self-directed learners and compassionate thinkers. The teachers deepened their instruction as they learned how to design student-managed project-based learning experiences that included teaching the self-organization skills of decision-making, planning, and self-evaluation.

A broad and deep background in education has prepared me to work with the youngest students through university students: preschool, deaf, gifted, and K-12 general education, staff development, school administration, and university teaching. I taught in the Department of Childhood Education in the School of Education at Lehman College, CUNY, in the Bronx, NY for 16 years. I have worked with teachers and administrators in the Philippines on curriculum design and national certification. At King’s Academy near Amman, Jordan, I was Instructional Coach for middle and high school teachers and taught English courses to students in grades 8-12.