Tag Archives: book group

Books, Communication

Virtual Book Happy Hour!

Virtual book happy hour logo

We miss chatting about books with you, so we’ve decided to bring the book group to you!

Last week we had our first Virtual Book Happy Hour and it was just the sort of end-of-week fun we needed!!

We shared books for all ages (some introduced by very young fans of CMLE) and even got to take a look at some of the creative projects our library friends are working on!

Can you join us?? We’d love to “see” you! Bring a book or a craft to share, or just get ready to chat about how things are going for you.
We will be holding these Virtual Book Happy Hours via Zoom this Thursday, April 23rd and next Thursday April 30th starting at 4:30pm. These are casual events so if you arrive later or have family members/pets/quarantine distractions, that is completely OK!

Here’s the link to the Zoom meeting: https://tinyurl.com/y9owq85l

Please email us with any questions! admin (at) cmle.org. Hope to see you Thursday! 😊

Check it Out:

Hang With CMLE: Upcoming Member Events!

CMLE provides opportunities for members of the library world to connect and get together in-person. This month we have several more opportunities and want you to know that you are invited!

These events all link to our page on Meetup.com where you can RSVP. And of course, email us with any questions: admin(at)gmail(dot)com.

Tuesday, March 10th: Susan Steinberg 2020 McNeely Creative Writer in Residence at St. Ben’s. The public reading starts at 7pm in Upper Gorecki and we can sit together for the author presentation. More info and RSVP here.

Wednesday, March 11th: Book Group Discussion (new location!) We will be meeting at La Casita in Waite Park at 5:30pm. We gather for dinner and everyone shares a book they are reading or have enjoyed. It’s really fun to hear the variety and recommendations and a great way to get to know people.
More info and RSVP here.

Tuesday, March 17th: Crafters gather to chat and work on projects! Join us from 6pm – 8pm in the Array room at the St. Cloud Public Library. Whether you are a hard-core, life-long crafter, or if you just got started last week in trying to figure out how to thread a needle, you are welcome here.
More info and RSVP here.

Books, Check it Out:

Join the Relaxed Readers Meetup Group

Book fans, listen up! We’re excited to be trying something new. CMLE has started a Meetup Group called Relaxed Readers. It will be an in-person book group, but instead of everyone reading the same book and having Very Important Literary Discussions (also fun, don’t get me wrong) we want people to come to chat about whatever book they are reading at the moment. And just an FYI, you are welcome to join us even if you are not a CMLE member!

If the group indicates interest in all reading one book together, awesome! We can do that! If everyone would prefer to just share their own Currently Reading selection, fantastic! We just want to enjoy dinner and some easygoing book conversation. We’ll have fun questions prepared beforehand and look forward to hearing about what you are reading!

Here is the link to the Meetup Group.

We have two events on the calendar now:

Wednesday, Dec. 11th at 5:30 we have reservations at Mexican Village in downtown St. Cloud!

And Wednesday, Jan 8th at 5:30 we will be at Mexican Village St. Cloud again.

If you are interested in joining our group and have a suggestion about a different location, definitely let us know! Leave us a comment or email admin @ cmle.org (no spaces).

It’s going to be a cold and snowy winter – cozy up with some books and reading friends! Hope to see you there! 🙂

Books, Programs

Check out the CIRCL Educators’ Book Club!

This sounds just great! We love books, and encourage people to participate in book groups – it makes finding good books so much easier.

Their first book is Coding as a Playground by Marina Umaschi Bers.

“Coding as a Playground by Marina Umaschi Bers is the first book to focus on how young children (ages 7 and under) can engage in computational thinking and be taught to become computer programmers, a process that can increase both their cognitive and social-emotional skills. Readers will learn how coding can engage children as producers-and not merely consumers of technology in a playful way.

You will come away from this groundbreaking work with an understanding of how coding promotes developmentally appropriate experiences such as problem-solving, imagination, cognitive challenges, social interactions, motor skills, development, emotional exploration, and making different choices. You will also learn how to integrate coding into different curricular areas to promote literacy, math, science, engineering, and the arts through a project-based approach.”

Check out this excerpt from their blog:

Get ready for the
CIRCL Educators’ Book Club!

“CIRCL Educators’ Blog is written by a small group of educators from across the nation who collaborate and think together about issues related to learning and technology. We share research, resources, and best practices. We have so much fun as we learn together that we decided we should open up the space and see who else would like to participate in the learning fun.

Our goal is to discuss a few books as a book club in 2019. Our first book will be Coding as a Playground, inspired by the Infosys Pathfinders Institute. The book club will start on 1/13/12019. To discuss our first book, we will use Flipgrid. Flipgrid is a video discussion platform that is used in classrooms and universities. If you haven’t used Flipgrid, we’ll help! It’s a platform used by a lot of teachers in their classrooms and most find it pretty easy to use. When you visit the CIRCL Educators’ bookclub site on January 13th, you will be able to click a green “+” to add a Flipgrid response. After you click the green “+” you will be prompted to share your reflection. Flipgrid will walk you through how to make your response post. There is no password or code needed!

We will also use Twitter to discuss conversations! Follow our Twitter account @CIRCLEducators and use the hashtag #circledu to share your thoughts!”

Books, CMLE

April Book Choices for our Goodreads Books Groups!

We hope you will join us online in our two Goodreads book groups and read some fun books with us as we wait for the snow to melt!

For our group CMLE Librarian Professionals, we will learn how to use timing to our advantage by reading When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink.

“Everyone knows that timing is everything. But we don’t know much about timing itself. Our lives are a never-ending stream of “when” decisions: when to start a business, schedule a class, get serious about a person. Yet we make those decisions based on intuition and guesswork. Drawing on a rich trove of research from psychology, biology, and economics, Pink reveals how best to live, work, and succeed. ”

For our group CMLE Librarians Enjoying Fiction, we will bury ourselves in the mystery of Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle.“The streets of San Francisco would be lined with hardcovers if rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright had her way. And her mentor wouldn’t be lying in a pool of his own blood on the eve of a celebration for his latest book restoration. With his final breath he leaves Brooklyn a cryptic message, and gives her a priceless and supposedly cursed copy of Goethe’s Faust for safekeeping.”

 

Do you need more book suggestions? Check out our series, or listen to our Readers’ Advisory podcast Books and Beverages!