Teachers all around the country are stressed by the distractions from focus that can result from disruptive behaviors. The Institute for School Reform at the University of South Florida developed a method that seems to work: teaching the specifics of listening and following instructions. It's a component of Project Achieve, developed by Dr. Howard M. Knoff, Professor of School Psychology there.

School psychologist Nicole Campanella reviewed the process in a workshop for parents and teachers that was part of January's Professional Development Institute sponsored by the school district.

It's clear, she said, that some students get good at interpersonal skills and some don't. Because they're in school the best part of the day, schools are going to have to model those skills.

The focus is on just those interpersonal behaviors necessary to facilitate learning: listening, understanding directions, deciding to follow them.

Starting in elementary school, students are drilled in these simple steps:

• Problem?
• Stop and think
• What are my choices?
• Will I pick a good choice or a bad choice?
• I'll just do it!
• How did I do?
• I did a good job!

Visual posters with each of these cues go up in the front of the room, and the teacher prompts the kids to repeat the steps out loud. Then specific role-playing exercises are played out with pairs of students.

When this process is introduced for a week, and practiced for another week, the students have mastered it sufficiently so that the teacher can use it effectively to interrupt behavior that's distracting. Teachers demonstrate consistency by reminding students, in this way, that:

• they do know how to stop and how to listen
• they have role-played how to ask when they don't understand something
• they've practiced making the good choice of following directions
• they've been helped to understand that bad choices have consequences
• they feel great when they've done a good job

Dr. Campanella shared with us that training teachers and drilling the kids has made these steps so much a part of her life that when she's experiencing frustration on the road the steps kick in to remind her not to act out!