My name is Karen Gail Brown and I am from Bristol (UK), although I have been living in Spain for a great part of my life. When I left school I trained to be a cartographer, and went on to work in the planning department of a local council. The huge change in my life came when I decided to go abroad to see what life could be like in another country. I chose Spain, despite not speaking the language, and had a few different jobs to get by. After working in a language academy, I decided this was my vocation so I enrolled in the three year teacher training qualification in Jaén which I was able to fit in with my part time teaching job. After qualifying I sat the public exams to become an English teacher in a state school, and now I am a primary school English teacher and form part of the school management team at a state school in Vilches (Jaén).
While working and studying in Linares, I was fortunate enough to meet and become a friend of Isabel Moreno, who has given me numerous chances to participate in artistic activities, particularly in the translation of artists' comments and reflections about their work.
In my work I don't teach the subject of art to my students, but I firmly believe it to be an essential part of the curriculum which sadly neglects their creativity and skill to resolve problems with imagination, so I always look for opportunities to promote and participate with our students and other teachers in artistic experiences which open their minds to art in all its facets and can be integrated into other areas of the school programmes.
Our experience with Crearte brought an important change to the way teachers and students looked at the art class. It was no longer a forty-five minute session to copy an important art work or put together a cut out model. It went beyond the classroom, broke the time schedule and and filtered into other areas. The final product was not the objective, the whole process was creative, cooperative and enriching, which for me was the most important and satisfying part of the project and something we will endeavor to continue doing.
karengb1919@yahoo.es