No More Dead Dogs

I have read a variety of books, for my Summer 2011 Book-A-Day Challenge, but No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman has to be my favorite, so far.  After hearing Gordon Korman speak at the All Write!!! Summer Institute, he had me wanting to read all of his books.  Gordon is big on humor and taking chances, within his writing.  No More Dead Dogs is a book about a boy who is tired of reading about dead dogs, in school.  As Gordon told us, while speaking and the Summer Institute, "think about it...in 3rd grade Sounder dies, 4th grade Stone Fox, 5th grade is a double whammy with Where the Red Fern Grows and then you get to high school and Jack London kills off an entire dog sledding team." 

In No More Dead Dogs, Wallace Wallace has to write a review over the book Old Shep, My Pal.  Wallace Wallace hated the book, and he writes just that.  However, this was not acceptable for his English teacher, because it is his all time favorite book.  The school happens to be doing a play based on the book, and Wallace Wallace has to serve his detentions, for not writing an appropriate review, at play practice.  In a hilarious turn of events, Wallace Wallace ends up changing the play, as well as the attitudes of many of the characters in the book.

On of my favorite lines in the book made me think of myself, as a teacher.  As many of you are aware, I was overly frustrated with the amount of boring test prep that the students, I work with, endured this past year.  The students were learning how to take a test, but were they really learning anything else.  They were bored and lifeless.  The play teacher in No More Dead Dogs states (p. 134) , "if you force the students to fit into the play, it'll come out lifeless and boring.  But if you mold the play to showcase the talents of the students, the sky's the limit." Isn't this so true, with students?  I have read, and plan on reading many more, teacher professional development books this summer, with one goal in mind; to mold my classroom around the talents of the students.  I want to be that teacher that helps students reach the sky, and for them not to just sit lifeless and bored in a class because they have to be there.