| KevinHoneycutt | says | Operation Butterfly |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | Years ago when I was a new teacher and given to doing crazy things to excite the learners in my classroom, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I did a terrible thing and I knew I would have to work hard to get my students to forgive me. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I was teaching art to grades one through twelve and each day was a dead run from class to class and from one school to another. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I got to see my grade school kids once each week for forty minutes so |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I had a very short time to capture their interest and keep them excited about art. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | Because I didn’t have the kids in my class every day, I struggled to build the sense of community |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | that I wanted them to have while they were in my room. I started thinking that a mascot of some kind |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | would help my students feel connected to my classroom. I didn’t know what would be best, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | a rabbit, a mouse, a lizard or some other pet but I was spending a lot of time thinking about it. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | As it turned out, fate would come to lend a hand in the near future. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I very much savored the time I got to spend with my wife and our pet dog and cat and in the evening we would walk together |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | and talk about the day’s events. We were an odd family and it must have been funny to see my wife and I walking along, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | followed by a small poodle and a gray cat. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | One fall evening as we walked along, I noticed a dead butterfly and picked it up. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | As we looked at this still beautiful insect, we noted a small tatter on one wing. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | We wondered why it had died and after some discussion I couldn’t bring myself to put it back on the ground. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | Eventually we decided to take it home. It’s not easy being married to an artist as we take a lot of strange things home |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | and rarely discard anything once it’s there. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I placed the butterfly in a box on the mantle when we got home before I washed my hands for dinner. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | As many teachers do, I worked a second job on weekends to earn extra money and that Saturday, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I found myself scraping and painting a house twenty miles from home. As I worked in the chilly morning air |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I saw what might have been a solution to my mascot question. There on a nearby twig, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | was a beautiful caterpillar. It was striped in bright colors and happily eating a leaf. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I thought this creature might just make a nice mascot and my kids could learn about insect life-cycles by watching it |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | eventually emerge from it’s chrysalis. I collected it and took it home with me at the end of the day. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | When I got home, I introduced the insect, I now called Harvey to my wife who approved of my plan. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I found a jar and placed Harvey inside with a few leaves and a twig. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | That next Monday my students were excited to meet Harvey and were quick to become interested in the future transformations |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | of this exotically-colored creature. I set him on a shelf, taking the opportunity to tell all of my classes |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | about him as they visited. In a short time, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | Harvey attached himself to the twig and made his chrysalis. This was a very exciting happening at the time |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | but once he was inside, he receded into the environment, giving way to the exciting paintings, drawings |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | and ceramics that we created daily. I didn’t know what kind of creature I had in the jar. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | Would he be a moth or a butterfly? We didn’t care, it was clear that the kids would love him no matter what he looked like. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I wondered how we would release him back into nature and thought that some sort of good-luck-Harvey ceremony might be appropriate. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | The days passed and one morning when I arrived at school and checked Harvey’s jar, I noticed that something very big had happened. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | Harvey was a butterfly and we had missed the whole event. Looking at the beautiful butterfly, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I noticed a problem, a big problem. Harvey was too big for the jar. His wings had extended as far |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | as they could and hardened but they were still partially curled up. As the kids looked on, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | we took him out and it was clear that his wings were going to be shaped oddly for his entire life span. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | We were sad and kids asked what would happen to him. I told them I would take him home and see what we could do. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | If anyone is following this and wants me to continue I will |
| mswine | says | yes please |
| EdVentures | says | PLEASE! |
| coolcatteacher | says | Go ahead - although you're changing the face of microblogging! U rock, KH |
| TeachaKidd | says | don't stop now... |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | My wife too was sad when she saw Harvey, who now rode on my shirt, free of his jar. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | “What will we do?” she asked. I don’t know, I said. I looked Harvey up in a book and found that he was a swallowtail. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I felt guilty, looking at the pictures of perfect butterflies in the book. He was different and would always be |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | and he didn’t even know or seem to care. I began to worry about him though for I knew he had to eat |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | and that he wouldn’t be flying from flower to flower, drinking nectar. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I thought about this for a long time and eventually decided to try to make him some home made butterfly food. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I mixed sugar and water and put it in a spoon. I then held him above the spoon and watched. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | From the books I had learned that Harvey had a proboscis that he could use to insert into flowers and drink nectar. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | It was long and coiled up but he extended it to probe and taste objects nearby in a short time he extended it into the waiting spoon. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | He loved the sugar water and drank for some time. My wife and I were delighted |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | to know that we had a butterfly that we could feed and that night he joined us on our walk. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | Two people, a dog, a cat and a funny looking butterfly. We were an odd family indeed. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I updated my students and they were happy to know that Harvey was doing well. He lived in my house and I fed him and left nectar dishes |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | where he could reach them when I was gone. From the books I learned that Harvey would have a short life of about thirty |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | days and I intended to make sure that his would be as happy as possible. I was doing a lot of guessing about how to care for a butterfly |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | but I like to think he enjoyed his walks with us and his time being a part of our family. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | Then it happened, I had a thought, a crazy thought. It wouldn’t work, it couldn’t work, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | The dead Monarch butterfly has wings, almost perfect wings and Harvey didn’t. I asked my wife one evening, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | what would happen if I tried to attach these wings onto Harvey? You’re crazy, she said, you can’t do that, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | how will you attach them? I thought about this for a while and said, superglue! |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | What!, she said, good grief you’ll kill him! No I said, I’ll use a needle to apply a very small amount, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | exactly where the wings attach. You’re on your own, she said, I don’t want to see the creation of a butterfly Frankenstein. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I was nervous! Was this a mistake? Was I crazy? How do you attach new wings to a butterfly? |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I thought about the procedure and how it might work. I would cut off Harvey’s wings but leave enough of the old wings to attach |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | the new ones to. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I’d have to keep him very still during the operation but once the wings were on, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | Harvey might fly for the first time in his short life. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I gathered the implements, super glue in a small lid, tweezers, a needle, scissors and the Monarch. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I carefully clipped each Monarch wing off, being careful to damage them as little as possible. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | There was the issue of that small tatter in one wing but I felt that this set of wings was much, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | much better than the wings Harvey wore. With everything in place, I began to operate. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I couldn’t immobilize Harvey, he was moving about I realized that such a precise set of maneuvers was going to be a challenge |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | with a moving patient. I snipped off Harvey’s curled up wings one at a time, being careful |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | to leave enough of a base to glue the new wings onto. Once his four wings were removed, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | he looked a bit like a walking-worm. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | He was doing fine so far. Carefully I lined up the first of the Monarch wings. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I dabbed the end of it with a bit of superglue on the needle tip and placed it on |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | what was left of Harvey’s wing nub. I blew on it gently and it stayed in place. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I then did the opposite wing in an effort to keep Harvey balanced. After this wing was affixed, |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I started his lower two wings. In a few minutes, Harvey was the proud owner-wearer of upgraded Monarch wings |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | and what’s more, he was moving them. Up and down they moved as he tried them out. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I gave him a few minutes and with my wife looking at him with a mix of disbelief and startled amazement, Harvey jumped. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | He flew about fifteen feet, to the other end of the living room before landing. I can’t believe that the Wright Brothers were any happier |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | that day in Kittyhawk than I was with Harvey’s flight. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | We took him outside and let him practice but none of his flights were longer. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I didn’t know if this was due to the tatter in one of the wings or the operation in general but her never flew |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | well enough for us to let him go. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | We kept Harvey in our home, occasionally taking him outside and to school where amazed students looked him over |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | in wonder at the Swallowtail who now now wore Monarch wings. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | In his short life Harvey endured a lot. He was good natured, loved sugar water and seemed proud of his wings. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | He was a Monarch, a king to my kids, my wife and me. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | I am now working on a children’s book based on this experience, parts of it on on this network. It is called: The Monarch of WillowWood. |
| KevinHoneycutt | says | THE END : ) |
| fsinfo | /clap /clap - really enjoyed your story |
| mswine | says |  |
| EdVentures | says | very cool! Sharing this one with my wife! Thank you Kevin! |
| gkat | www.plurk.com/static/emoticons/gold/applause.gif |
| njtechteacher | asks | do you have photos of Harvey? What an amazing story. I wouldn't have had it in me to do the operation. |
| n2teaching | says | very cool story. Keep on keepin' on.  |
| KevinHoneycutt | shares | I'm looking through old VHS tapes, I have video somewhere of Harvey post op. |
| cleisure | says | this is awesome! |
| GingerLewman | thinks | that it's time for you to finish your story. Esp if just the inspiration story gets this response. |
| KevinHoneycutt | shares | I am uploading my preliminary illustrations and photos to flickr, I'll share the link. |
| EdVentures | loves | Harvey! |
| KevinHoneycutt | shares | Here is a link to some illustrations:www.flickr.com/photos/29716266@N00/ |
| KevinHoneycutt | shares | I'll share a synopsis soon. |
| gkat | Thanks Kevin - let us know when you publish too |
| nnorris | says | (Plurk is awesome!) Wonderful story Kevin |
| KevinHoneycutt | shares | Thanks! |
| milobo | says | wow - beautiful story. Thanks for sharing it. |
| dmantz7 | feels | the same as all of you fellow readers. This was powerful. Would be very interesting to have students create an ending of their own. |
| karlyb | says | amazing! wow! |
| mindelei | was | really impressed - how emotional. |
| Yurkwi | likes | this stroy so much! Great job! |
| TeachaKidd | likes | innovative uses of new tools! Way to go, Kevin! |
| bookjewel | Love it! Great story, great use of plurk! Thanks for sharing.  |
| wsigele | gives | two thumbs up! I appreciate you sharing with us! AMAZING! |
| elainej | says | this is a GREAT story for pre-service teachers so they can envision the possibilities of their craft |
| elainej | says | but it's also a great story for the weary more experienced teachers who might need to be reminded of the lives they change every day |
| geoWIZard | gives | Kevin Honeycutt the Prairie Passage Pathfinders award for his persistent power of example! |
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