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Eat Your Veggies

The menu started small, however, I am starting to feel as if the menu is growing exponentially. There are so many choices to choose from: Study Island, Khan Academy, GAFE, Go! Math, and code.org just to name a few. With more and more choices, I have to remember there is only time to have one meal a day in class, with a possible dessert after.

Yet like at a restaurant, not everyone chooses the same thing. Some people don't like tomatoes. Some people don't like onions. And some people don't like anything without ketchup. So therein lies the trick. How can I serve a balanced diet of education at my tech restaurant? How do I keep my customers coming back? How do I get them to "eat their veggies"?
Some of the possible answers I am finding are: knowing the curriculum, knowing the resources that are out there, and most importantly knowing my students. What is good for one group, may not be the best choice for another group. Allowing students to have choice is important in my classroom. When they have a choice, they are much more engaged and self-motivated. No one wants to go to a restaurant only to find one item on the menu. So why should my classroom be any different? At the same time, going to a restaurant with too much on the menu is confusing and frustrating.

In the end, I have to make sure there is a healthy, balanced diet of just the right amount of choices on the menu. I can't let my menu get too large, and I can't let it be just one thing. I have to keep the staples, but also find new items to introduce to the menu every now and then, too, while removing some not so popular items. When did I get into the restaurant business anyway?
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