John Tibbetts

TIFTON — When he came out of the final interview, John Tibbetts thought he had a fair chance at being named 2018 Georgia Teacher of the Year.

“I came out of the interview thinking I had done myself no harm, that I had held my own,” said Tibbetts. “But of course, you don’t know.”

Not until earlier this month, when the Georgia Department of Education named the Worth County High economics teacher and Tifton resident the 2018 Georgia Teacher of the Year.

Tibbetts was one of 10 finalists, each of whom had to sit down for a 45-minute interview with a panel made up of former winners and state education personnel, among others.

They also had to deliver a speech, and Tibbetts took the opportunity to outline what he would focus on as teacher of the year.

He talked about the need for teachers to do a better job in partnering with each other and community members, and the need for the community to partner with its teachers.

“It’s something that I think has good application,” said Tibbetts. “I truly think it’s important. No one does it well enough.”

As an example of teachers helping teachers, he points to the teachers that taught him, especially Renee Hughes, who was his mentor teacher when he started out teaching at Tift County High School.

“Tift County is a great example,” said Tibbetts. “We’ve got a great school system here. Communities…have to partner with their school system and find ways to support the school system.”

It’s something he’ll spend the next year talking about.

Being named teacher of the year comes with a one-year sabbatical during which he’s expected to criss-cross the state, meeting with teachers and education groups and speaking at various events and meetings.

He also wants to talk about the great things teachers do every day.

“School systems have great teachers,” said Tibbetts. “There were nine other candidates for teacher of the year that could be sitting here talking to you.

“I’m a good teacher, but there are days when I’m not even the best teacher on the hall, much less the school.”

Tibbetts came to teaching after 21 years in the Army. He spent half his time in the Army as an armor officer leading tank units and the other half as a plans officer.

“Teaching is a natural extension [of that], from the perspective of training and leading,” said Tibbetts.

He taught at Tift County High School for five years, taking a break to go into education consulting.

In 2015, he got back into teaching economics at Worth County High School.

In his teaching, he tries to find a balance between the military discipline he’s accustomed to and his belief in running a student-centered classroom.

“I run a pretty loose classroom,” said Tibbetts. “I’ve found what works best is student-centered activities.”

Some of those activities are auctioning off chocolate to demonstrate the effects of inflation and having classrooms compete with each other to make the most paper cups to illustrate gross national product.

He cites “The Musicians of Mars,” a 1990 Army paper that emphasizes the importance of synchronization between the members of a unit, as influential to his teaching.

“The idea is you have to master the basics to do the complex, difficult things,” said Tibbetts. “If I can get you to understand some key basic tenants and principles, then I can challenge you to think about different ways of applying that.

“I try to teach them how to think as much as what they need to know.”