ICAGeorgia offers a Dual Language immersion program in both English and Japanese. This means that students spend part of their day immersed in Japanese-speaking classes and the rest of the day in English-speaking classes. Throughout the school day, during both Japanese and English immersion, students are exposed to a wide range of content learning areas, such as Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music and Physical Education.
We work hard to ensure that students attain a high level of Japanese instruction by using the Japanese Ministry of Education curriculum in the Japanese department. Additionally, English and Japanese teachers, including ESOL teachers, collaborate across departments during team meetings and professional development. At ICAGeorgia, we believe careful attention to how we plan and prepare to advance our own learning is synonymous with student achievement. Our teachers attend professional learning to improve planning and preparation every other Friday.
In addition, we offer the following opportunities to students:
Our students will contribute to the local and global community through various service learning projects. We will promote parent involvement and build a community that learns from one another.
ICAGeorgia is a Stay-Home Study Abroad Program where students will get the experience of actually studying in a Japanese school. They will learn the same material as their Japanese peers and participate in Japanese school life. Our school hosts an annual “Mochitsuki” rice pounding festival; “Setsubun” Japanese bean-throwing festival—to ensure good luck for the new year; “Keiro no Hi” Respect for the Aged Day—celebrating the legacy of our grandparents; Japanese tea ceremony – highlighting the long held tradition of “Ichi-go-ichi-e” (one time, one meeting) — the concept of treasuring “ the moment”; and a bi-weekly “Town-Hall” including Japanese story time for the students.
The mission of ICAGeorgia is to broaden the horizons of students in Georgia to a diverse international community so that they may become global citizens who promote peace around the world.
The school’s core values are aligned to the mission and will inform our approach to community building, celebration and accountability. W.O.R.L.D PEACE (We Own our Responsibility to Lead and Devote ourselves to Peace) is the schoolwide PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports) program. W.O.R.L.D. PEACE is our effort to articulate a thoughtful student-centered community building and accountability plan. Our approach to discipline at ICAGeorgia is helping our children learn valuable life lessons like making good choices lead to good consequences and making bad choices lead to bad consequences. The successful implementation of W.O.R.L.D PEACE will lead to a sense of purpose, informed decision making, the ability to learn from our mistakes, consistent committed adult leadership and support.