Angelique

Website:	CrucialCrew.org

URL:	http://www.crucial-crew.org/gangs

Subject Area and Grade Level	Social Science: Health, Current Events; Elementary and Middle Type of Site:	Informational-student use and Interactive Site Description:	CrucialCrew.org is a website created out of the U.K. that provides an interactive program called, “Gangs, Guns, and Knives Awareness” that enables kids to engage in an activity on making right choices. The program takes them through a scenario where their choices could cause them to either encounter or avoid confrontation with a gang. The decisions they make with either yield them the reward of safety or render them extremely hurt. The company also provides similar, interactive activities such as, “Drink and Drugs,” and, “Electricity Safety.” Crucial Crew is teacher-friendly, as it provides a variety of teaching resources, such as a Teacher Packet, and “logic trees” in PDF format to go along with each safety scenario. It also provides a link to the site design company, Crucial Interactive Media. There I found an incredible informative/interactive program called, “The Alternative Trip” (Middle to High School appropriate), and others.

Website:	TampaBayGangs.com

URL:	http://www.tampabaygangs.com/

Subject Area and Grade Level	Social Science: Current Events; Middle and High School, Adults Type of Site:	Survey, Support, Interactive Site Description:	TampaBayGangs.com is an interactive site that offers support, focuses on gang prevention, and collects information. It first assesses whether you are a youth, a citizen, an educator, or a parent. It then takes you on a tour through a series of interactive questions with a person you can connect with. For example, it you answered youth, you would go through the site with an ex-gang member; teacher, with another teacher; and so on. The interactive tour guides are wonderful in the way that they provide nurturing guidance, support, and empathy. It must be noted that the site collects information from participant responses in order to compile reports for the Tampa Police Department. There is a page with other resourceful links and a privacy agreement/clause that states that all information is collected anonymously and that no IP addresses will be collected. Further, that the Tampa Police Department reserves the right to view and share the data collected.

Website:	GetOurKidsBack.com

URL:	http://www.getourkidsback.com/index.html

Subject Area and Grade Level	Social Science: Current Events; Upper Middle and High School Type of Site:	Informational, student-use Site Description:	GetOurKidsBack.com provides a host of information on gang culture and raises gang awareness. Although, primarily geared towards informing parents for the purpose of prevention of kids joining gangs, it has an incredible multimedia library with lots of slideshows and videos to further inform the public of specific aspects of gang culture, such as activities, signs, language, and graffiti. It also provides a blog and links to articles regarding this subject. Because of the nature of the material, I certainly would not recommend it for any grade below 8th grade. I would allow my students to use it only as a resource for the research piece of a Web Quest/class project on gang awareness and prevention.

Website:	TeacherTube.com

URL:	www.teachertube.com

Subject Area and Grade Level	All Subjects; Middle and High School Type of Site:	Multimedia; Videos and Images, Informational-student use, teacher resource Site Description:	TeacherTube.com provides a site for teachers and students to publish their videos, which are understood and agreed by its members to be shareable with others. Videos may be downloaded with the agreement that there is a link to Teachertube.com in any media presentation and that the author of the video is acknowledged. If offers free membership, and because it is a share community similar to Youtube.com, it offers a myriad of videos and image resources usable for teaching/educational purposes. I have chosen a particular video on this site for a Web Quest on gang culture and awareness.

Website:	Toondoo.com

URL:	http://www.toondoo.com/Home.on

Subject Area and Grade Level	All Subjects, but primarily Language Arts; Middle and High School Type of Site:	Informational and Interactive Site Description:	Toondoo.com is a fun, interactive comic generator. It allows individuals to create, publish, share, and discuss comics that they generate themselves using the program. It does not require a download, which is helpful, as student and even teacher computers at our school will not allow such action without administrator approval. All work is created and published on the site after creating an account. It provides a link to a blog, a forum, and an additional “help Wiki” for understanding the more difficult parts of the website and applications. I would use it for many purposes in my classroom, but it will be especially attractive to auditory learners, being that they love to read and create dialogue between persons. I will use it in my Web Quest to have my students generate a comic where they will be creating a dialogue where they will be engaged in a scenario where they are attempting to convince a gang member to turn his life around.

Website:	GangsOrUs.com

URL:	www.gangsorus.com

Subject Area and Grade Level	Social Science: Current Events; Middle and High School, Adults Type of Site:	Informational –student use Site Description:	GangsOrUs.com is comprehensive in that it offers a wealth of information on gang culture, awareness, prevention, and intervention. It contains many resourceful links of videos, articles, and trainings. It is easy to understand, although, there is so much information, it is easy to get lost. You could spend hours navigating through the site.

Website:	FloridaDepartmentofCorrections

URL:	www.dc.state.fl.us

Subject Area and Grade Level	Social Science: Current Events; Middle and High School, Adults Type of Site:	Informational –student use Site Description:	Offers the most comprehensive information and fascinating history on the transformation and migration of gangs that I have ever seen. It explains extensively the origins and migration of gangs. The website is so well-developed and appealing that it even has a link for the numerous website awards it has won. Among these are several Golden Web Awards. It provides links to reports, articles, organizations, and related branches of the Florida Department of Corrections.

Website:	OfficeofJusticeandDelinquencyPrevention

URL:	www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/

Subject Area and Grade Level	Social Science: Current Events; Middle and High School Type of Sit:	Informational-student use Site Description:	OfficeofJusticeandDelinquencyPrevention provides much needed information on the approach and programs the federal government has take regarding aspects of juvenile delinquency. The particular hyperlink I have provided offers much pertinent information on female gang members—information which has historically been neglected to be obtained in most research and studies. This information will be necessary for my students to conduct an all-inclusive report on gang culture.

Website:	Into the Abyss

URL:	http://faculty.missouristate.edu/M/MichaelCarlie/Default.htm

Subject Area and Grade Level	Social Science: Current Events; Middle and High School, Adults Type of Site:	Informational –Student use Site Description:	Into the Abyss is a actually something similar to an e-book. It is also a comprehensive study—the personal journey of Dr. Mike Carlie that takes us intimately into the world of gangs. He has spent over ten years conducting field observations and interviews of gang members in the heart of their environments. He has also based much of his research on a review of other literature on gangs. In Into the Abyss, Dr. Carlie keeps his readers engaged by his findings. He writes it in the first person, which makes it more appealing than the typical research study. He also provides links to up-to-date gang-related news and to the newest research available on gangs. His page is updated daily.

Website:	HomeboysIndustries.org

URL:	www.homeboy-industries.org

Subject Area and Grade Level	Social Science: Current Events; Middle and High School Type of Site:	Informational, Non-Profit Organization Site Description:	HomeboysIndustries.org is the website of a successful gang intervention program that was started by a Father G. Boyle 20 years ago in 1988. The program provides ex-gang members with alternatives to the gang. The Homeboys website proudly displays many aspects of its well-known and respected intervention organization, such as employment services, tattoo removal services, businesses created and run by its members, and so on. It includes a photo and video gallery, a link to its partners, and information on how to get involved and help the organization. It will be utilized by my students in our gang awareness Web Quest to help them develop their own model of an organization for gang prevention. and intervention for our city.