The other day I made my second batch of Christmas sugar cookies. For those of you who do not make Christmas cookies from scratch, it is really quite a production. First you have to make sure you purchase everything you need for the cookies. You may need flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and don’t forget to bring home containers or decorative plates for gifting some of the cookies.
When I made the first batch a couple of weeks ago, I studied the recipe and thought I was being so careful as I added each ingredient. At one point the recipe says to add four eggs, then add three cups of butter milk with two teaspoons of baking soda stirred until frothy. I missed the part about adding the baking soda to the butter milk. I thought rather than adding the eggs and butter milk separately, I could stir the eggs and the butter milk together, then add the baking soda last. Obviously, this wasn’t what the recipe called for and I was horrified, but the cookies tasted great!
For the second batch I followed the recipe to the letter and even tried a new icing recipe. When the new recipe turned out too thick, I settled on a second recipe which turned out to be easier to spread. The cookies were good and the icing was excellent.
Thinking about my Christmas cookie baking experiences I thought about how we approach a process with a plan and then work step by step to carry it out to the best of our ability. Following the completion of a process, we reflect on our performance and we work to improve for the next time. Just like the correction in my second batch of cookies, adding the baking soda to the butter milk, our teachers spend a tremendous amount of time focusing on improving our classroom learning environments for our students.
Each of the Columbia District schools have improvement plans. Our teachers work together examining test data and reflecting on educational practices, focusing on best practices. As we continue to join together to improve Columbia Schools, we invite our parents and community members to add their input. Parents may submit their input via our website at www.myeagles.org. The parent survey may be found by clicking on the appropriate school, then clicking on the Parent Survey link located below the school’s picture. Community members may submit input by emailing me at pam.campbell@myeagles.org. If you are interested in learning more about Columbia School District please call me at 517-592-6641 or email me at pam.campbell@myeagles.org.
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