Pen Tray

I believe that every teacher is a reading teacher and I love using a highlighter when I am introducing text. Whether I am highlighting context clues, vocabulary or simply parts of speech it always comes in handy. Since I use this tool often, I prefer to have one of the pens in my pen tray a highlighter. Besides being easy to use, it allows students to pick up a pen and highlight something easily.

You also may want to change a pen if you have a favorite color that isn't red/blue/green or black or simply want a different thickness. For instance, secondary teachers often like a thinner pen since they are writing more sentences in cursive whereas a primary teacher may want a thicker pen. Whatever your reason, it is simple to change the defaults in your pen tray.

Click on the blue square SMART tools icon in the windows notification area. Some say it looks like a white donut and others a peppermint lifesaver. Choose control panel and then "hardware settings." The pen tray is the first item that appears whose settings can be changed. Click on the pen that you wish to change and a properties window will appear. Choose the line style that you wish and change the transparency if you wish for the pen to be a highlighter. Click on "save tool properties" and then "apply" and "ok." The pen now has the properties that you gave it. Changing hardware settings in SMART changes it on the computer that you used. If you are moving room to room with a laptop, the changes go with you. If you share a room, you will want to communicate with others about any changes made to the pen tray. To go back to the defaults you can go back into hardware settings and click on the "defaults" button. All of the pens and buttons will go back to the factory settings.

An FYI - you can only change SMART hardware settings when you are hooked up to a SMART board.