It may be classified as a children’s book. The narrators may rotate between three sixth grade boys. But, this book is for teachers.
The main characters have created the following categories for teachers:
- Zombies – Teachers who have been teaching a long time and use worksheet after worksheet.
- Caff-Adds – Teachers who drink way too much caffeine and talk and move faster than is normal.
- Dungeon Masters – Very strict teachers who require complete silence at all times.
- Spielbergs – Teachers who show movies, often very loosely related to the current topic of study.
- Noobs – New teachers, high energy and very excited about everything.
- Good Ones – This description I’m going to quote straight from the book:
The ones who make the torture otherwise known as school somewhat bearable. You know when you have one of the Good Ones because you find yourself actually paying attention in class, even if it’s not art class. They’re the teachers you actually want to go back and say hi to the next year. The ones you don’t want to disappoint.
Topher, Steve, and Brand have this teacher – Ms. Bixby. She is what they classify as one of the Good Ones, but she announces she isn’t going to be able to finish the year with them. So, they make it their mission to give her the perfect last day. Throughout the book, the reader slowly finds out the ways in which Ms. Bixby influenced these three boys.
Read this book right before you go back to school. You may be going back to a position you didn’t want, administration that makes you feel unappreciated, and an occupation that is constantly under attack by the public. However, we don’t teach for any of those reasons anyway. Its about the kids- about being one of “the Good Ones” for each child that enters your room.
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