About Amana

Amana Academy is an approved Fulton County Public Charter School. The school is incorporated in the state of Georgia as a non-profit charter school and is located in North Fulton, north of the city of Atlanta.

A wonderful characteristic of start-up charter schools like Amana is that they are usually founded on a central core-principle. Amana's foundational principle is the broad concept of "stewardship". Our founders believe that educators are stewards - entrusted with children and their education, which should position them as stewards within our communities, society, and the natural world.

These principles, woven into all aspects of the school's vision and mission, led organizers to choose the Arabic word "Amana" for the school's name, because it conveyed the pervasive sense of "a trust that must be nurtured and guarded".

Amana envisions its graduates possessing a healthy balance of intellect and ethical character - with a positive self-image who are motivated for lifelong learning and achievement, who respect others and the environment and who can skillfully communicate their interests.

Achieving this aspiration has stimulated a unique set of educational approaches all focused on fulfilling Amana's education goals of: high academic achievement, exceptional communication skills, foreign language instruction, ethical character, and civic & environmental responsibility.

Our teachers will implement Fulton County Schools' curriculum utilizing Multiple Intelligences and Constructivism for the teachers' instructional methodology.

We will employ the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound (ELOB) school design model at the elementary school level. ELOB, a "New American School Model", is one of the Nation's most innovative and successful instructional models. Through ELOB's design principles and practices, ELOB school designers will enable our teachers to implement real life, 8-10 week project-based learning "expeditions" that promote literacy and integrate curricular content. ELOB will also deliver on our guiding principles of Stewardship and the school's stated mission goals of building communication skills, student character and community/environmental responsibility. Fulton's Crabapple Middle School also utilizes ELOB.

We will use the Georgia Elementary School Foreign Languages (ESFL) Model for teaching the Arabic language. Learning Arabic (30min/day) will improve overall student learning and serve as competitive advantage to students. Amana Academy will be unique among all Georgia public schools in offering Arabic starting at the Elementary level via ESFL. The proven ESFL model is already in use at Fulton's Mimosa Elementary, where every student is required to learn Japanese. Arabic is one of the United Nations' six official languages. It is spoken fluently by over 300 million people around the world - with one out of every five people globally having some knowledge of the language. Along with Chinese and Russian, Arabic is considered by educators and policymakers to be a language of economic and cultural significance. Fluency in Arabic will give Amana students an important edge in the job market of the 21st century, and cultural understandings developed from an early age will enhance their competitiveness.

We will introduce Single-Gender but equal classrooms in grades 3 and up, founded on the compelling evidence of scientifically based research. Single-gender classroom instruction will have a positive affect on academic achievement and classroom behavior, and it will facilitate learning without social distractions allowing kids to take risks regardless of subject-specific role stereotypes or negative peer pressure.

Though our charter was approved to include single gender classrooms in upper elementary and middle school, Amana Academy had to hold off on implementing this due to a current federal Department of Education initiative to investigate the place of single gender classrooms in public education nationwide. If the federal department approves single gender public education, Amana will move forward on this element of our plan. Until the decision is made, we will continue to comply by offering mixed gender classes. We check with the DOE regularly to keep updated, and have not been given a timetable for when to expect an answer on this question.

Implementation of Classroom-Looping started on a limited scale in the second year of the charter (2006-2007 school year). Looping allows a teacher to stay with her/his class for two years. We will continue to expand Classroom-Looping every year. This scientifically based research approach is encouraged by ELOB and promises to improve academic results, accelerate efficiency, and solidify relationships between student and teacher.

We will partner with local institutions that can deliver relevant instructional and organizational assistance to our school. They will help Amana realize the belief that education goes beyond the four walls of a classroom. Each of these educational partners was chosen because each has a core competency that aligns with a specific Amana mission element.

These foundational partners are not intended as "business partners" used as sources of funding; they are "institutional partners" providing the Amana community with increased opportunities for learning and hands-on experiences. With that objective in mind, Amana Academy has fostered partnerships with local organizations that closely match the school's mission, have a capacity to add value, are willing to work closely with the Amana community and share the vision of what the partnership can achieve.

The following four partners each offer strengths in different areas and together form a balanced portfolio of very strong assets. As of the 2007-2008 school year, these partnerships are in various stages of development and/or actualization.

Chattahoochee Nature Center (CNC) (www.chattnaturecenter.com)

CNC is a privately-owned nonprofit organization located on the Chattahoochee River in Roswell, Georgia. Their grounds are a unique educational resource providing experience-based learning focused on nature and the environment, extra-curricular opportunities in the area of natural science, and environmental education.

Please refer to page I-4 of the Amana Academy Charter for more information on our Letter of Understanding with CNC.

Alif Institute (www.alifinstitute.org)

The Alif Institute, located in Atlanta, Georgia, is a comprehensive education, cultural, arts and enrichment center with a focus on the Arab culture and Arab Americans. The Institute was established in 2003 by the Arab-American Fund of Georgia (AAFG). AAFG is a nonprofit, nonpolitical, nonreligious, educational organization established in 1986. The Alif Institute acts as a forum for cultural, scientific, and artistic interchange and will benefit Amana's program by providing a forum for the on-going exchange of Arabic language resources and instructional techniques as well as the opportunity to expand our understanding of the diversity of humanity.

The Alif Institute’s mission statement can be found on their website at:
http://www.alifinstitute.org/mission.html

Please refer to page I-2 of the Amana Academy Charter for more information on our Letter of Understanding with the Alif Institute.

Georgia Tech's CEISMC (www.ceismc.gatech.edu)

The Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC - pronounced like "seismic") is an educational resource center located on the campus of Georgia Tech in Atlanta. CEISMC unites the Georgia Institute of Technology with many other educational groups, schools, corporations, and opinion leaders throughout the state of Georgia, toward one common goal: to ensure that K-12 students in Georgia receive the best possible preparation in science, mathematics, and technology.

CEISMC’s mission and goals can be found on their website at:
http://www.ceismc.gatech.edu/about/missiongoals.htm

Please refer to page I-5 of the Amana Academy Charter for more information on our Letter of Understanding with CEISMC.

Hands On Atlanta (HOA) (www.handsonatlanta.org)

HOA's mission statement can be found on their website at:
http://www.handsonatlanta.org/AboutUs/index.php/ourmission.html

Please refer to page I-3 of the Amana Academy Charter for more information on our Letter of Understanding with HOA.