About Me — Bev Garcia

Grammarlady

Teach me teacher

For as long as I can remember, I liked to “play school.” My earliest recollection is setting up chairs and little tables in the living room and inviting my brother and friends to sit there as I instructed them how to write connect cursive L.

To me that was fun, and it still is. I am a learner. I am a teacher. I like to share what I learn.

I like words. Words are the distinguishing mark of human beings. I became an English teacher.

Scrabble is one of my favorite games. Learning new words, and defining concepts in context is challenging to my brain.

Reading and writing

Teaching English means more than grammar, diagramming sentences, or defining parts of speech. I like to see the relationships of words, and the choice of words like whether to use between or among. I enjoy the editing process, the writing, and the prewriting brainstorming. Helping others get it out of their heads and onto paper energizes me.

Teaching English also meant reading stories, like Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. I learned her history right along with the eighth-grade students I was teaching that year. I found out more about the Holocaust. Years later, I lived in the same town as Miep. I visited the Anne Frank House in Holland, walking up those steep steps, and experiencing the hiding place behind the door. Just a few years ago I visited the horrific site of Auschwitz where twisted words in German said, “Work will set you free” across the entrance.

Words can deceive.

Her writing meant more to me then and now. Today I see what triggered me to write about me: the Google Doodle of Anne Frank’s life and diary.