Shannon Salter is in her 12th year teaching high school social studies. Certified in secondary social studies, ELA, and communications, she currently has taught 12th grade US Government, AP US Government, Yearbook, and a Criminal Justice elective, while serving as the social studies department lead. She currently serves as her high school’s Partnership Coordinator, where she is responsible for creating and maintaining relationships with a wide range of community stakeholders (local, statewide, and national) to support real-world learning opportunities for students. Shannon’s passion is creating opportunities for students to use the skills of civic action to take their learning in all subjects out of the classroom to make an impact on their community. In 2015 Salter was invited to become a founding teacher of Building 21 High School in Allentown, PA, where learning is built around competencies (skills), cross-curricular instruction, and project-based investigative learning. Shannon’s work in civic education and in the development of cross-curricular learning activities (specifically blending environmental science and civics) have led to work under a National Science Foundation grant, published research in Social Education and The Science Teacher, and speaking engagements at National Geographic, the National Council for the Social Studies annual conference, and at several professional development sessions for teachers. Shannon is a member of the iCivics Educator Network, the National Geographic Educator Advisory Panel, the National Constitution Center Teacher Advisory Council, and currently serves on the governing consortium of Educating for American Democracy, where she also is co-founder and co-chair of the Teacher Leadership Task Force