Nativity Prep Academy of San Diego seeks a new campus by the end of June 2020!
Trauma-Informed Middle School Course
Levi Lee, Director of Family and Student Support and Trauma-Focused therapist St. James School (Philadelphia, PA) piloted a new Trauma Course with students focusing on issues and topics related to Trauma. The objective of the course is to provide their students (5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders) with a concrete foundation for solving emotional and behavioral difficulties associated with single, multiple, and complex traumatic experiences. In addition, students will attain the necessary tools and skills needed to feel secure when helping a friend, family member, classmate, or themselves, when suffering from a traumatic situation.
6th grade student, Jonathan Reyes.
London Marshall explaining to the St. James faculty what are cognitive distortions and ways to untwist negative thinking.
Students learn the exact skills a master level clinician would learn to become a Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapist. They are introduced to and begin utilizing trauma-focused vocabulary/terminology such as the Amygdala, Hippocampus, Prefrontal Cortex, Affective Modulation, Subjective Unit Distress Scale (S.U.D.S), Cognitive Distortions, Cognitive Triangle. The course is as follows:
Week 1-2: Psycho-education
In phase one, students learn the foundation of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. During this stage, the student comes to understand trauma, common reactions to traumatic situations, and the effects trauma can have on brain development.
Week 2-3: Relaxation Skills
In the second phase, students create awareness of the capacity to change from state of tense/distressed state to state of relaxation.
They learn specific skills (i.e; Mediation, Muscle Relaxation, etc) to help reverse the physiological arousal from the trauma, and reduce/calm distress at the moment (e.g., at home, school, in the community).
Week 4-5: Affective Modulation
Similar to the relaxation skills component, the student learns helpful strategies to identify, modulate, and regulate upsetting affective states that may arise, especially those that result from trauma. There are many ‘affect regulation’ skills and techniques that are covered in this component, including:
Problem-solving
Anger management
Present focus
Obtaining social support
Positive distraction activities
Using skills in relation to a trauma reminder
Week 6-9 Cognitive Coping Skill
The final component is the cognitive processing skills component. The students build skills necessary for coping with stress and achieving meaningful healing from trauma. During this stage, the students learn to:
Recognize the connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Replace harmful or unhelpful thoughts with more accurate or more helpful ones.
Week 10-11 Mock Presentation and Final Presentation
The students present a final demonstration of their new knowledge and skills to their family, St. James faculty, and friends.
If you’d like to learn more, please contact Levi Lee via email: llee@stjamesphila.org
January 2020
New Website
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas break and a happy new year celebration! With the new year, the Coalition has updated its website to reflect our new logo and colors.
We also added an interactive map to showcase our member schools and to highlight how far the NativityMiguel model spans in the United States and Canada.
Webinars
The Coalition sponsors webinars throughout the school year. Below is a link to past webinars:
Our next webinar will take place in February. More details to come!
Job Postings
If you would like to post a job opening on our website, please send an email to dperez@nativitymiguel.org, along with the job title and a PDF attachment of the job description.
National Conference 2019
On October 23-25, members and partners of the Coalition gathered in San Diego for our 2019 National Conference. Our theme was “Equity in Education.” From the importance of math for our student's’ academic careers to the language we use to describe our school communities, our speakers and presenters challenged us to reflect on how we can continue to strive for equity in education.
Joi A. Spencer, Ph.D.
Associate Dean
Professor, Mathematics Education
University of San Diego
Patti Perez
VP of Workplace Strategy at Emtrain and author of “The Drama-Free Workplace”
Fr. Jack Podsiadlo S.J.
Former Principal and President of the first Nativity School, Nativity Mission Center
Many thanks to Dr. Gil Brady and his team at Nativity Prep Academy in San Diego, CA, for being generous hosts to our 2019 National Conference.
Dr. Gil Brady, President of Nativity Prep Academy (San Diego, CA)
GSP room at Nativity Prep Academy
Dia de los Muertos Mural in the school’s hallway
Thank you to the University of San Diego for also hosting our gathering and breakout sessions!
Cornelia Connelly Center Alum and current Advancement Associate, Genesis Torres.
De Marillac Academy and University of San Diego Alum with De Marillac President, Theresa Fylnn Houghton.
The Coalition honored member schools that achieved milestones of the 5, 10, 15, 20, or 125th founding anniversary with plaques presented by NMC’s Board Chair, Carolyn Becic (President of St. Andrew’s Nativity School in Portland, OR).
Marian Middle School(St. Louis, MO)
: 20 Years
Sarah Heger, Principal and Mary Elizabeth Grimes, President
Escuela de Guadalupe (Denver,CO): 20 years
Michelle Galuszka, President
Loyola Academy of St. Louis:
20 Years
Dr. H. Eric Clark, President
NativityMiguel School of Buffalo : 15 years
JoAnne Hudecki, Board Chair
St. Andrew’s School (Richmond, VA:
125 years
Cynthia Weldon-Lassiter, Ed.D., President
Complete list of schools achieving milestones in the founding anniversaries:
125th Anniversary
St. Andrew’s School (Richmond, VA)
20th Anniversary
Escuela de Guadalupe (Denver, CO)
Loyola Academy of St. Louis (St. Louis, MO)
Marian Middle School (St. Louis, MO)
15th Anniversary
NativityMiguel Middle School of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY)
Sisters Academy of Baltimore (Baltimore, MD)
10th Anniversary
Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School (Richmond, VA)
Nativity Prep of Rochester (Rochester, NY)