About Me Blog - Fall 2017

         Hi!  My name is Alex Rentner and I teach high school math at Waubonsie Valley High School.  I have been teaching for 8 years at Waubonsie and currently teach Geometry, Algebra 2 and Trigonometry.  I graduated from the University of Evansville in May 2009 and got my Masters in Instructional Technology from Northern Illinois University in 2014.  Incorporating technology in order to enhancing teaching and learning is definitely on the forefront in education.  I have done my best since getting my masters and from my own research to incorporate technology into my teaching, but I know I can do more.  My district is going 1:1 with Chromebooks this year and I am excited to learn new tools and get new ideas of things I can integrate technology effectively into my classroom to make my teaching and my students learning better.

          When I have used technology in my classroom I have used a lot of Google related applications such as, forms, surveys, documents.  I really like using the quiz option in Google forms to be able to give my students immediate feedback on how they are doing with different topics throughout the courses I teach.  I have worked Google Quizzes into my Geometry curriculum quite often when my students and I are reviewing for targets quizzes.  My students really like the idea that they know what they are getting right or wrong immediately so they know what they need to study before the actual quiz or test.  I have also incorporated videos into Google Quizzes to help my students review and refresh concepts if they do get something wrong.  I have used other technology tools in my classroom such as Kahoot and Quizizz.

          I am looking forward to learning new ways to enhance my math curriculum with technology to make it more effective for my students.  Using technology to say you are using it, I do not believe is right.  I want to be successful using it in my classroom and have it be effective at the same time.