Art
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Greetings Parents and Students! My name is Kara Whitmire, and I am so very excited about this school year!
I received my Bachelor's in Fine Arts Education from UCO in 2008 and I have been teaching at St. Eugene since graduation.
I also teach adult pottery classes at Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center (formerly known as City Arts Center) and I have worked for several after school art programs. I am super passionate about making art class both fun and applicable for my students. My philosophy of art instrcuction is based on the Discipline Based Art Education theory and I also draw lots of inspiration from author Elliot Eisner's thoughts on art education. I have provided links below if you would like more details and I strongly encourage you to take a look. You might be suprised at all the wonderful benefits art education can have for all children.
I have some broad goals that I apply in the classroom to make sure that all activities are age-appropriate and will provide students with knowledge of materials, processes, and artists that they can build on throughout their time at St. Eugene. For Early Childhood students my goal is for them to experience a variety of art materials without too much direct instruction. Early childhood is the time for exploration! For Elementary age students my goal is to provide them with an understanding of basic techniques and processes. In middle-school I promote problem-solving in art and try to foster critical thinking skills that students can apply to other academic subjects.
I will use this website to make announcements, post pictures, and keep you updated on what is going on in the art classroom during the year. So please check back often and let me know what you think!
I am only at the school several days each week, so if you need to reach me or would like to set up a conference please email me at [email protected].
Elliot Eisner: 10 Lessons the Arts Teach
http://www.arteducators.org/advocacy/10-lessons-the-arts-teach
DBEA: Discipline Based Art Education
http://www.fineartstarts.com/pdf/DBAE.pdf
Ms. Whitmire’s Art RubricPoint Values 10 points 9-5 points 5-0 points Progress/Completion Completed the project or made reasonable progress in time allotted Made less progress than expected in time allotted Made little or no progress Followed Directions Followed the directions as they were presented Followed most of the directions Did not follow directions Craftsmanship/ Neatness Showed an effort to apply good craftsmanship to the project Showed an effort to apply good craftsmanship throughout most of the project Did not show an effort to apply good craftsmanship Participation in Clean-up Procedures N/A- evaluation is only worth 5 points 5 points- Participated fully in clean-up Participated little or did not participate in clean-up
Note: Students may not be graded on every section of the rubric during every class period. Typically they will be evaluated on two of the four sections of the rubric per class period and the remaining two will be evaluated the following class period in order to keep the time that the teacher spends grading to a minimum during class and so that students are not being over evaluated in a short amount of time.
Also, I usually apply the “50 base” rule to my grading procedures. This means that, although my rubric includes a point value of “0” I will not give a student less than 50% of the point value. I apply this rule because students only have art once a week and some for only half the school year. Thus, one “0” can bring down their quarterly grade very quickly. A 50% is still a failing grade but will not create a situation in which a student is unable to earn a high grade in the class overall.