Accomplished actress Dr. Tonea Stewart belted out a song from the blockbuster movie “The Lion King” that echoed throughout the Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School gym Monday morning as teachers returned to work in Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five.
For the second straight year, Stewart was the keynote speaker for the district’s welcome back ceremony for teachers. She touched on the Disney film’s theme of maintaining the “Circle of Life” to illustrate the vital role teachers play in today’s society.
“The ‘Circle of Life’ has an unending circle. ... We’ve got to be aware that the lions we are teaching now are a part of that circle,” Stewart told a captivated audience of several hundred teachers.
The Mississippi native Stewart is best known for her starring role as Aunt Etta Kibbey on the television series “In the Heat of the Night.” She also appeared in such films as “A Time to Kill” and “Mississippi Burning.” Currently, she is the department chair of Alabama State University’s theatre arts program.
She encouraged teachers to understand children and their individual struggles. The former NAACP Image Award nominee clamored for the teachers to get parents, businesses and members of the community involved in the education of their students.
She said that teachers merely talking to parents about the positive work of their children can pay large motivational dividends.
She discussed a project she led in Alabama where at-risk children were recruited to perform various jobs in the theatre business, such as styling and lighting. The 59 students in the program were in charge of the technical aspects for a few productions and many of them were able to get jobs afterward due to the experience.
“Invest time with young people by teaching, encouraging and motivating them,” she said.
Stewart also displayed her stage presence by singing two songs and then passionately acted out the part of a mother who lost her daughter in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing during the Civil Rights Era.
Following Stewart’s speech and the recognition of teacher accomplishments, OCSD Five employees headed back to their schools to prepare for the first day of school next Monday.
Over at Sheridan Elementary, Principal Xennie Weeks is implementing a program called Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies. The program emphasizes and rewards the positive behavior of students.
“We hope it will improve school climate,” said Weeks.
Sheridan second-grade teacher Jane Janquet is looking to integrate more technology and hands-on activities into her science and health classes this year. Fellow teacher Jaron Cannon plans to show the modern-day relevance of science in his classes, a practice which will be used across the district.
Like Janquet, he will also include more hands-on activities so that students “can relate more to the lesson than just on paper and pencil.”
Newly minted 2008-2009 District Teacher of the Year Dawn Starks said she plans to start a family math night for parents to show them ways to help their children with homework.
She is anxiously anticipating the return of her students.
“I look forward to having fun. I enjoy them, I enjoy playing games with them and in the process they learn,” Starks said.
n T&D Staff Writer Lee Tant can be reached by e-mail at ltant@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-534-1060. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.