Mark's Page

Greetings Mark,

I'm Mike McQueen, teacher librarian and founder of http://www.GettingBoysToRead.com. Like many school districts, we are in a financial crises. Our school board recently proposed to eliminate ALL 20+ middle school teacher librarians and also cut all 90+ elementary schools to half time. Since we are the biggest district in all of Colorado, we worry this will cause other districts to follow suit. We launched an online movement and are going to do our best to put up a good fight.

If possible, please visit our Facebook page and "Like" us http://www.facebook.com/SupportSchoolLibraries . Adding a positive comment and sharing with your friends would help our morale as well. The board finalizes the budget soon so your timely support would be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,

Mike McQueen

Teacher Librarian at McLain HS

Lakewood, CO

Hi Mark,

I'm a teacher librarian & recently started a community based blog for getting boys to read - http://GettingBoysToRead.com. Please send me a friend request if you'd like to network, share ideas, and learn more about getting boys to read.

Sincerely,
Mike McQueen

LET'S NETWORK HERE TOO (request me as a friend):
My FACEBOOK Profile
My TWITTER Profile

Thanks Mark, I'll start working on the policy stuff too. I know we have to do a "3 min" speech during class...so our write up should be 2 or so pages according to my notes. I'm not sure if she gave us a rubric. But I think we are presenting our cases and pretending the rest of the class is the "school board."

Hey Mark, I found quite a few articles on Tango Makes Three...take a look.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/02/07/MNG3N4RAV41.DTL
Central Park Zoo’s Gay Penguins

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1275591.html
Zoo Tempts Gay Penguins Straight

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/16/AR2008021602213.html?referrer=emailarticle
Two Guys and a Chick

http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/blogs/living-loco/2008/feb/11/wheres-tango/
Where’s Tango (lots of comment posts)

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2006/11/16/parents_want_gay_penguins_book_blocked/?p1=MEWell_Pos1
Parents Want Gay Penguins Banned

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3mGlp4GT6k
Banned book week Top 10 2006

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6440187.html
ATMT Prompts Serious Debate

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/SteveWalden/31086/
Homeschool Blogger (dad who homeschools very against story…lots of comment posts for and against her comments)

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/12/20/schools_chief_bans_book_on_penguins/
School Chief bans book

http://towleroad.typepad.com/towleroad/2005/05/something_for_t.html
man who is friends with authors…reading comments left by public is more interesting (both for and against)

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46456
Wedding March (follow up to real penguins)

http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/childrensbooks/gr/Tango.htm
Book review from about.com Lesbian life

Hey Mark,
I think that's fine. I haven't read that book either, but have heard a lot about it. Let's go with TMT and we can decide which side of the issue we want to be on.
Gretchen

Hey Mark, Any idea on what book we might want to read for the challenge assingment? I know you mentioned Harry Potter, since it's often a hot item. I haven't ever actually read HP before, so I can read it with "fresh" eyes. Have you read any of them? Do you have one from the series in mind?
Gretchen