McGann connects with students, bookmarks minds

by Caroline Basile, sports editor

One thing that keeps Linda McGann passionate about teaching is "seeing students 'get it,' or have those moments of connection when the cirriculum suddenly intersects with their lives.

McGann, associate professor of English at South Plains College, has spent the past 26 years teaching off and on throughout the college level, including six years at SPC.

"I'm an English professor because I respect good writing,” McGann said. “I respect the skill and hard work that goes into the process of writing, and I respect students who are working to better themselves and take on mastering that process to the best of their abilities."

  One of McGann‘s favorite activities away from grading and reading papers is reading.

"Lately, my reading selections include Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor and various other Southern authors,” McGann said. “I do love an author with a slightly wicked sense of humor/irony. On my MP3 player, I'm listening to Robin Cook's latest medical thriller “Crisis” and “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything” by S. Levitt and S. Dubner. I am a voracious reader, so to limit myself to a few favorites is futile. Technical manuals are one of the few texts I read under duress," McGann added.

Her interests are not just occupied by reading.  McGann also enjoys movies and some television programs.

"I look forward to the release of ‘All the King's Men’ and the new Kennedy movie, ‘Bobby.’" McGann said.

  "Lately, it seems I've been spending a fair amount of time at the gym. It does seem odd at my age to suddenly discover spinning classes and weight training are not only necessary, but under certain circumstances, enjoyable. I admit it never hurts for a teacher to be thrown into situations where he or she is the student. There is great value in being reminded of how it feels to be a beginner. That mix of anticipation and anxiety when pitched into the unknown is never far from the surface," said McGann.

 McGann has lived most of her life in Lubbock. She moved back after four years in Seattle to be closer to her parents.

"When not teaching," McGann said. "My career choices were closely related to education, as I clerked in a college bookstore for 12 years, managed a retail bookstore in downtown Seattle for two years, and co-owned a bookstore for four years."

  Aside from English,  McGann has a background in horticulture.

"Reactions are usually a bit humorous when I admit I have advanced degrees in English and in horticulture," McGann said. "Admittedly, the two do seem an odd combination. I'd like to think that the broad scope of my educational background strenghtens my understanding of the writing skills my students will require."

 Her interest in horticulture stems from her childhood.

"When I was young, planting a vegetable garden was an activity my father and I shared," said McGann. "We still compete to see who is able to grow the earliest and the biggest tomato. He has a mix of foul-smelling secret ingredients he puts in each planting hole. To date, I usually have the earliest harvest, but he routinely produces the largest fruit. There must be something to that weird mix of Epson salt and burnt matches and who knows what else."

 "In addition, my youngest sister is a landscape architect," McGann added. "And we talked about going into business together one day. She'd design, and I'd plant. While finishing her degree at Kansas State, she fell in love with a classmate, married him, and moved to Maine, where she now teaches science to high school students. Life has a wonderul way of working things out."

 McGann’s entire teaching career so far has been at the college level.

"I served as a teaching assistant in the English department at Texas Tech while working on my M.A. and completing my Ph.D. course work,” McGann explained. “While in the Horticulture Department, I spent a few years as a research assistant and as the lab instructor for the introductory course."

McGann said that she appreciates the small class size and personal atmosphere at SPC.

"I graduated from a very small high school,” she said. “Moving from a class of 14 to classes where enrollment numbered in the hundreds was a little overwhelming. If memory serves me, I never interacted with any of my instructors or my classmates the first few years.

“Smaller classes, and upper-level course material allowed me the kind of classroom discourse and debate that made my learning experience immeasurably richer. One of the qualities I value at South Plains is the size of our classes and the opportunity to interact with students."