Clarice Garcia has been teaching second grade at Greenfield Elementary for eight years. She has been a teacher for 12 years. She began teaching in her hometown of El Paso, Texas.

“I began my teaching career in the school district where my parents, myself and my children went to school,” notes Garcia, who adds, “When I began my career in education, I worked for my high school principal. I also worked with some of my elementary school teachers.”   

Garcia says that it was her high school English teacher whose caring and interest in her students inspired Garcia to go into teaching. “I started to realize, this (the classroom) is where I can help,” she says.

Building relationships with her students is something that Garcia takes pride in, she says. “I consider us a family,” she says. “They can count on me.”

Garcia has four children—her oldest just graduated from ASU, another is attending NAU, and the two youngest are in high school. 

“I enjoy spending time with my family, crafting, going to the movies and traveling,” Garcia reports. She and her family have 30 chickens as pets! The chickens are different breeds and they all have names.

Garcia’s favorite subject when whe was in school was reading, she says, but nowadays she loves to teach social studies and science. She says she loves science because anyone can do it, and you can make a mistake and it just leads to more discoveries and more learning. “I get all excited about science,” she says with a laugh.

Garcia has taught kindergarten through third grade, but she says second grade is her favorite. She notes that the kids are more independent, but still little enough to want to do their best. “My heart belongs to second grade,” says Garcia.

Student Claire nominated Garcia, and writes that her teacher “always supports us, (is) funny, kind and very, very, very, very, very, very nice!”

“I like to let them know that they are unique. They can do anything that they put their mind to,” she says of her students. Most of all, she hopes each student will embrace differences and “just be a kind human.”