Rotary Club of Tucker Names 2022 Teacher of the Year

The Rotary Club of Tucker (RCT), a member club of Rotary International, has named Genevieve Johnson, an English teacher at Tucker High School, as its

2022 Teacher of the Year. Johnson was honored as one of six top DeKalb educators, named by six of the member clubs of the DeKalb Rotary Council. The annual awards were presented during a breakfast held on Friday, March 25 at Smoke Rise Country Club.

Johnson was born and raised in Los Angeles, but headed to the east coast for college, where she graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta before earning a master’s degree of education from Harvard University. She returned to the west coast after graduation, and spent ten years teaching in south central Los Angeles and in a small detention center on the San Diego-Mexican border.

“Returning to these places helped me to shape my pedagogy and learn what students really needed from their teachers: practical knowledge and consistency,” said Johnson. “Students simple need basic tools to navigate this world: how to read, write and think critically so they can think for themselves and form their own opinions.”

In 2006, Johnson moved from California to Georgia and began teaching AP and Gifted English at Tucker High School. She is the school’s ELA (English Language Arts) department chair as well as the staff advisor for the school’s literary magazine Collage. She appreciates the diverse student population at Tucker, and over the years, has traveled globally with students to Peru, Greece, France, Spain, Turkey, England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. She hopes to continue teaching at Tucker High for many years to come. “Tucker High School is a haven of the best of all possible elements. I am privileged to live and work in Tucker, and am grateful to be part of such a warm and charismatic community.”

In her spare time, Johnson enjoys traveling, crafting, and reading. She is an avid knitter and crochet artist and often hosts classes to teach her students how to knit and crochet. “The DeKalb Rotary Teacher of the Year program is a very important initiative, an opportunity for Rotary to put a spotlight on the contributions of our teachers in the county,” said Kellianne King, president of the Rotary Club of Tucker. “Promoting literacy remains one of the most important causes of Rotary International and this is our way of making sure that the teachers in DeKalb know that their work is valued and that Rotary stands behind them.”