Putting the "Style" in Stylus

Notice, these pens have no point.
While most of the tech in my classroom is pretty advanced, one of my favorite tools is my smart board stylus.  Running any classroom requires flexible on-the-spot problem solving and this holds true for all things tech.  As a SmartBoard user, I have struggled with line quality and alignment.  These issues have improved over the years with updates to the software.  A source of ongoing minor frustration has been the pens that come with the smart board.  The pen tips become soft and ill-defined.

The "quill" actually has a brass tip, and was bought at Barnes and Noble
My first solution was to trim the pens.  I used regular scissors and gave the pens a fairly severe clipping.  This solved the issue for almost 2 weeks.  After that amount of time, the tips started to fan out again.  My new solution was inspired by the quill on my desk.   In the midst of class, I remembered that the Chemistry teacher had given the art teacher some feather from the turkey the chemistry teacher's nephew had raised for his 4-H project.  I sent one of my student's to get one of these feathers, and he returned quickly with the feather.

The calligraphy pen setting 
 The feather has become my favorite accessory in the class.  I love the quillish nature of how it interacts with the white boards "calligraphy pen" setting.   The feather is well-suited as a stylus.  It rests well in my hand, and the tip is great.  It is well defined, but smooth.



A fine tip makes a fine line, the rest is just putting the style in stylus




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