
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
For our class read aloud, my class opted for Gordon Korman’s Restart. It’s a title I had never read before, but the other fourth grade teachers in my school raved about it. When my class voted for it over the other four titles, I smiled. Not only was I excited to read something different, but my head immediately remembered the autobiographical short story I’d read this summer by Gordon Korman, “This Can’t Be Happening,” in the collection Hope Wins edited by Rose Brock.
Gordon tells about something incredible that he made happen when he was twelve-years-old. Not because he had planned it or because his parents had orchestrated it, but because his physical education teacher subbed in his English class, for his ELA teacher’s maternity leave. Gordon completed the assignment, took it one step further, and his life changed forever.
During our Valentine’s Day celebration today, before I continue reading Restart, I’ll start with Gordon’s inspiring story that proves when we dream big anything is possible.