Year after year, educators take on the timeclock, pitting relationships against rigor, connection against curriculum, hedging bets that our tried-and-true tactics will prove to be enough, oftentimes throwing the figurative and literal kitchen sink at challenges.
The midpoint is messy. It’s mangled and manicial, full of reworked lessons, redirected conversations, and reworded explanations, scribbled and marked out, revised and rewritten, crumpled up and smoothed out, only to be crumpled up again.
With all the messes leading up to it, January stresses me, and I’ll be honest, on more than one occasion, I’ve decided the best way to handle these types of messes is to throw them into the bin, trashing the wasted efforts and attempts, and learning absolutely nothing.
This year, I’m trying something different.
I’m taking some of my own advice and rebranding January from irritable messy middle to innovative magic maker.
Innovation requires us to improve upon previous efforts. To do so, we have to reflect and take stock, auditing our nows to reveal our status quos, status nos, and status grows.
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When we consider imagery of transformation, oftentimes a cheery, vibrant butterfly comes to mind.
This is not one of those times.
This era of global metamorphosis more fittingly corresponds with the sun-loving butterfly’s subtler cousin: the moth.
Like the butterfly, the moth evolves from egg to caterpillar, eventually re-emerging as a winged creature. In fact, so critically intertwined is this life cycle to our cultural understanding of transformation, that third grade classrooms across the country observe, chart, hatch, and celebrate the metamorphosis of the butterfly.
Anybody hatch a moth?
Nope. Not even by accident.
Both are often interpreted as symbols of rebirth and transformation, but moths are more commonly associated with a decidedly more sinister representation: destruction.
Butterflies get flowers, glittery stickers, and revered affection.
Moths get monster-status and a dedicated pesticide.
Frankly, moths get a bad rap. But there is a lot to be gleaned from their way of being.
As a caterpillar, the moth weaves a delicate silk and leaf cocoon around itself, remaining slightly vulnerable during the process of metamorphosis. Risk-taking and vulnerability are necessary elements of true, deep, lasting change.
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Quick! Name a goal of classrooms all across the United States? Ding, ding! To create a classroom of innovation. Teachers and administration alike pou over the blogosphere, Twitterverse, and attend conferences en masse and on-quest for this holy grail of transformation. And while there are innumerable treasures to be found within each and every resource,
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