[1] Jake Sherman is sitting in his sixth grade science class with his friends Josh Hopka and Andy Kent.

As he finishes explaining his invention, a bolt of lightning strikes the house, knocking Jake and Mr. Dirksen unconscious.

The truth suddenly hits him: Mr. Dirksen's machine has caused Jake and his teacher to swap bodies.

Jake (in Mr. Dirksen's body) follows, but is only thrown out of his house when his father does not recognize him and threatens to call the police.

While trapped in his teacher's body, Jake attempts to make life miserable for Mr. Dirksen in hopes that he will agree to switch back, but to no avail.

Eventually, "Mr. Dirksen's" lessons to his science class prove so exciting that the impressed Principal Blanco praises him for them and declares him a model teacher.

Mr. Dirksen, however, learns of a fact that makes him decide to switch back: that if he is Jake, he will have to spend the weekend in a cabin with Andy and Josh.

Mr. Dirksen points out that if there is no bolt of lightning to strike his home, there is no hope of the machine working.

Mr. Dirksen agrees to make his classes more exciting from then on and heads to his dinner date with Mrs. Rogers.