April Salas

April Salas is a 6th grade social studies teacher at Mendez Fundamental School in Santa Ana, California. She has a master’s degree in reading from California State University, San Bernardino and received her bachelor of arts in history and teacher credential from the University of Redlands. She has been teaching for nine years and is always seeking new learning opportunities to help engage and support her students. She was the first teacher in Banning Unified School District to teach a course at the middle school level in geographic information systems (GIS), making her site one of a few schools to offer the course in Southern California. Currently in Santa Ana, April leads her site’s AVID program, which empowers students with 21st century skills so they can be college—and career—ready.

Through inquiry, exploration, collaboration, and using technology as a tool, she creates opportunities for students to understand the world of the past and the present and their place within the larger global context. She helps students understand culture and society as well as politics, the economy, and religion through geographical inquiry. April enjoys collaborating with other teachers to create great learning experiences for students. She serves as a mentor for GATE Symposium where she works with other teachers to support gifted and talented students through research-driven and project-based learning.