Grammorticians

I have to admit, when we started the semester and I was told that we would have to look at grammar, I thought, "I've been dreading this.  I knew this day would come."  I can identify basic parts of speech, types of sentences, etc. etc., but you start talking about participial phrases and I'm lost.  I was reluctant to delve into our assigned grammar readings as well.  I am not a grammortician:  someone who beats into a person proper usage until he/she dies of overexertion.  I have taken several linguistics classes and have come to realize how so many of our strict grammar "rules" were founded on the frivolity of the "educated" who thought that everyone should speak and write like themselves.  I don't like grammar.  However, I loved the reading, despite the awkwardness of the writers referring to each other by first name.  Did it seem like a weird form of talking in the third person to anyone else?  Anyways, I digress.  This is exactly how I want to "teach grammar" in my classroom.  Admittedly, I will have to brush up on my own skills in order to understand exactly how the different grammar construction can affect a piece.  It was weird.  I was reading this as a student (Oh!  I can do this to my memoir!) and a teacher (I would LOVE to do that as a mini-lesson!).  It is a great curiosity as to why, after 100 years of not working, we have still all been taught grammar in drills.  The methods described by Connie, Carol, and Sharon make grammar much more effective, and, I dare-say, fun!