Building Ballast
Universal Holistic Restorative Practices
Ballast is the weight sailors put in the bottom of their boat so that powerful winds will cause the boat to tip but not flip over.
Building "Ballast" in school and life hinges on the idea that resilience is not a fixed quality—some days we need to add more ballast to our boat so we don't flip over. And sometimes we need to add more in the middle of a heated exchange!
When students don't have enough ballast, behavioral disruptions happen and kids can't succeed academically.
When adults don't have enough ballast, they burn out, cross boundaries, resort to punitive or neglectful habits.
The good news: youth and adults can build ballast together!
Below you will find the top three ways to build ballast in your classroom and school—systematically and individually.
All three ways include the skill-building, motivation-building, and capacity strengthening necessary to weather the storms of life.
Quick Links to Universal Resources:
ONE: Create Restorative Rituals and Routines
A. Do Daily Check-Ins
Check-ins are one of the core practices of building ballast.
Check-ins provide build the self-awareness and opportunity for the teacher to offer supports AND for students to access supports themselves, BEFORE they become dysregulated.
Switch up check-ins to increase engagement.
B. Create Inclusive Rituals and Routines
Use CASEL's 3 Signature Practices Playbook to create inclusive, engaging, ritual and routine.
The success of these practices hinges on our brain's need to slow down (regulate) and connect (relate) before we can learn (reason).
C. Circle Up Often
Circling Up is a crucial Universal Practice that provides a space for every student to be seen and heard, where students and adults practice listening and speaking skills and issues crucial to a vital learning environment can be discussed fairly. This Circle Process Guide is a great starting place to learn how to use this tool for building connectedness and resilience in your classroom.
D. Communicate Restoratively
Becoming restorative begins with aligning the way we talk to each other and student with restorative principles. Restorative communication is about pausing, dropping assumptions, acknowledging, inquiring and collaborating for repair. It requires we use "I" statements — to humanize ourselves and the student while seeking accountability together.
TWO: Teach, Model & Coach The Why and How of Self-Reg Skills
A. Pause
According to the educators who adopt this practice, this one change in their own lives and in their classroom has made the greatest positive impact.
We should pause throughout the day, with and without kids. And when we pause in the face of challenging circumstances, it helps to signal this pause with a "Whoa" or "Wow" or "Yikes" as an indicator that the behavior has had an impact.
"Pausing" essay by Claire Stanley, Ph.D.
B. Teach & Model Emotional Regulation Skills
Choose five emotional regulation techniques to teach and practice as a group. Have students choose one as their own. Create a reset space where students can practice their skill on their own. Post suggestions in the space.
Alphabreaths (Have students come up with their own)
Calming Corner Ideas from Joelle Van Lent
Emotional Regulation and Mindfulness Activities from Gillian Bodreau Ph.D.
C. Teach Students about the Brain
Dysregulation can be scary—for the person experiencing it and those watching it. Knowing why our own or someone else's behavior has gone sideways calms our fears and prevents stigmatization. We can talk about behaviors being caused by someone's "Lizard Brain" for example, instead of because they are "bad". It helps separate the person from the behavior, which supports change.
D. Decide on Common Language
1) Dan Siegal's Work:
Hand Model of the Brain, developed by Dr. Dan Siegel is a great way to teach kids about the brain AND give them a way to signal when they feel themselves going "offline."
Here is a great article explaining the concept of Upstairs & Downstairs Brain and a (Resource for Brain Characters)
Here are some great free resources from the Zones of Regulation
2) Flight, Fight, Freeze explained by kids using the "Upstairs, Downstairs" language.
Flight, Fight, Freeze Video for adult PL
3) "Lizard Brain" being explained to 3rd and 4th graders by Mindful Schools. Also uses the hand model.
This is a helpful video for 3-5 grade students about the brain and flipping our lid, using "upstairs downstairs" language.
4) Zone of Regulation
Many schools use this program to help kids to notice and communicate how they are feeling so they can access the supports they need to get back in the "green" zone!
This video comes from a great website about the Zones.
Here's the official site for more resources.
THREE: Build Your Own Skill Knowledge & Awareness
A. See Behavior as Communication
Disruptive behaviors can simply be maladaptive strategies to communicate or try to satisfy an unmet need.
We all have needs.
When our needs are met we feel good feelings.
When our needs are not met we feel difficult feelings.
Behaviors are strategies to get our needs met so we change the way we feel.
Child Mind Institute: Breaking the Behavior Code: How teachers can read and respond more effectively to disruptive students
B. See Behavior as Symptom
Disruptive behavior can be a symptom of dysregulation and neurodiversity, chronic stress, complex trauma, ACEs, environmental factors, etc)
Child Mind Institute: "Breaking the Behavior Code: How teachers can read and respond more effectively to disruptive students"
Behavior is a Symptom, Not a Problem
C. Build a Holistic Restorative Classroom/Space
Develop your understanding of the factors that contribute to dysregultion by checking out these resources:
