Ines Kirkpatrick

I have 35 years experience as first a librarian with many hats, then college Library Director, and finally English Professor. I served on too many committees, for which I was expected to write reports, because that's what English teachers do, right? And I enjoyed being the campus consultant first for Writing Across the Curriculum and then for Critical Thinking (which was essentially just another way to sneak more writing into my peers' classes).

Lecture, opening question, a great deal of collaborative work involving students and other teachers, learning community, and hands on writing instruction in a computer assisted writing lab. I rarely sit, if that tells you something.

Numerous awards for teaching and innovation. But my finest "awards" came in the loving notes students gave me at the end of each semester. I still have every single one.

I hold degrees in English and Library Science. My best memories of school, however, are from the military and public schools I attended as a child. Even then I realized how hard teachers work. They inspired me to absolutely love learning. Yes, I just split an infinitive, but I'll spare you my lecture on why that is such a silly rule.

My interests include laughing, writing poetry, loving my friends and my family of seven children (and a sprinkling of grandchildren), reading, genealogy, and writing about the antics of my Labrador Retriever on Facebook.