1. Lightning Bug By: Julie Higgins

2. What is Lightning Bug? Lightning Bug is designed to be a writing partner to help students through the writing process from beginning to end Writing exercises are designed for writers of any ability Quick Links connect to mind maps, storyboarding, writing exercises, writing resources, the Digital Narrative, story voice and flow

3. Visiting the Website http://lightningbug.com.au/

4. Tips and Tricks Scroll to bottom of home page to access a variety of resources and navigate the website Visit Quick Links to explore more options Facebook page available for quick and easy access Printable worksheets available for use while teaching about the various stages of the writing process

5. Tips and Tricks Continued Resources contain blogs about writing, articles, grammar lessons, creativity exercises, and writing software Lesson plans take you to The Teaching Portal to help you plan for multiple lessons while teaching about the writing process

6. Possible Classroom Applications Use this website to teach about various stages of the writing process Use writing exercises as a warm-up to other writing activities and get rid of writer’s block Have students explore what type of writer they are to assist them with what type of story they want to tell Students can submit various types of written work to publishers/contests

7. Pitfalls to avoid Be sure to examine links that are not kid-friendly Some links lead to other outside websites that require fees to further access their resources Avoid covering too much content in one day

8. Similar Tools and Sites http://www.thewritingteacher.org/ http://writingfix.com/ http://writingfun.com/writingfun2010.htm l http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/in dex.htm http://ttms.org/