Election Fun

The election buzz is obviously electrifying today. Charlie and I have had several opportunities to hear many people's opinions with the candidates at all levels. Well today we each got to go cast our vote. Anticipating lines, Charlie went to Richfield Middle School this morning and fortunately beat the morning rush. I went after school today at 3:15 PM and was also fortunate to have no line.

Over the past 2-3 weeks, we have been doing several voting activities in class. Our district is part of the Kids Voting, giving kids under 18 a chance to experience voting as they travel to the polls with their parents. My homeroom students have been fired up and many students are going to vote tonight. The Edina local TV network is going to interview and update the kids vote results as well. To get the kids fired up as they left today we watched a great youtube video that the Ron Clark Academy students created for the elections. I included the lyrics below too - I definitely needed them.



The kids from the Ron Clark Academy sang “You Can Vote However You Like,” a parody to T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” recently.“You Can Vote However You Like,” lyrics are below:

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

(McCain supporters)
McCain’s the best candidate
With Palin as his running mate
They’ll fight for gun rights, pro life,
The conservative right
Our future is bright
Better economy in site
And all the world will feel our military might

(Obama supporters)
But McCain and Bush are real close right
They vote alike and keep it tight
Obama’s new, he’s younger too
The Middle Class he will help you
He’ll bring a change, he’s got the brains
McCain and Bush are just the same
You are to blame, Iraq’s a shame
Four more years would be insane

Lower your Taxes - you know Obama Won’t
PROTECT THE LOWER CLASS - You know McCain won’t!
Have enough experience - you know that they don’t
STOP GLOBAL WARMING - you know that you won’t

I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA
Stick with McCain and you’re going to have some drama
We need it
HE’LL BRING IT
He’ll be it
YOU’LL SEE IT
We’ll do it
GET TO IT
Let’s move it
DO IT!

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

I’m talking big pipe lines, and low gas prices
Below $2.00 that would be nice

But to do it right we gotta start today
Finding renewable ways that are here to stay

I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA,
Stick wit McCain you gone have some drama
MORE WAR IN IRAQ
Iran he will attack
CAN’T BRING OUR TROOPS BACK
We gotta vote Barack!

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

Oh SNL!

If you didn't see this on Saturday night, I hope you enjoy it now!

The Lawrence Welk Show

One of my favorite skits from Camp St. Croix revolved around the Saturday Night Live Lawrence Welk Show performance. The students changed the skit a bit - instead of Denise (you will know her when you see her) they have replaced her with Mrs. Potts. The students who did this skit knew the SNL version all too well. Enjoy this hilarious video!

Camp St. Croix

Another successful year of Camp St. Croix has been recorded. Team Globetrotters arrived back to school yesterday afternoon with smiles and sleepy eyes. Parents anxiously waited for their children, excited to hear about their trip. Students peered out of the bus windows as we approached, signaling to their parents as they dreamed of their own bed, warm shower, TV, and a delicious meal (camp food this year was exceptionally bad).

Camp was great this year. The weather was fabulous even with the rain the first day. Everyone participated in the orienteering activities, river walk, night hike, team intiatives, camp fire skits, and climbing wall.

Some highlights for me included the river walk, camp fire, initiatives, and climbing wall. On the second day, in the afternoon, I went with a group to the St. Croix River. It was absolutely beautiful by the river. The trees were changing color and the sun was casting amazing light effects through the forest. I saw my first bald eagle's nest as well. Those nests are incredibly huge! I learned a lot of interesting facts as well - like the tongue structure of a woodpecker, the feather count on a bald eagle, the life span of an eagle, and the "dead zone" of the Mississippi River near the Gulf of Mexico.

The climbing wall was another successful event as I was able to climb to the top and to complete the climb in a new PR time. With practice each year, I am getting faster - just call me Mrs. Spidey.
The camp fire was another fun event. For the third year in a row, it was "Pick on Potts" night for the skits. The students enjoy the chance to tease their teacher. Although this group was very different than last year's group of students - I had 6 of the 12 groups ask if it was okay that they were teasing me and apologize to me several times. They are a pretty sweet bunch of students. Most of the skits involved my fear of squirrels so the teasing wasn't too intense.

Speaking of squirrels, the squirrels at Camp St. Croix have a mind of their own. They are even more scary at camp because they aren't afraid of people and they hang around looking for food. GROSS! There is one particular squirrel that enjoys the dining hall and hangs around the building all the time. To make matters worse, it is an albino squirrel named Marshmellow. Albino squirrels are creepy! I saw Marshmellow way too many times to be comfortable on my hike to the dining hall.

Northfied Raider Football

Josh had his first football game yesterday. The Raiders began the season with a tough non-conference schedule. Mankato West was the first of the opponents. Both the 10th grade team and varsity lost their game.

Josh is playing 10th grade football and rarely comes out of the game (he only comes out when he subs himself out. Yes, Josh takes himself out of a couple of plays when he is tired!). He is playing on the offensive and defensive line as well as special teams. He even was asked by Bubba, the head football coach, to dress varsity for the season. Needless to say Josh was pretty fired up to dress varsity with four other teammates.

In Josh's first game Northfield let West go up by 21 points in the first six minutes of the game. Fortunately Northfield was able to score in the first half and convert a 2 point conversion to make it 21 - 8. Northfield scored again in the early minutes of the second half (unable to score on a 2 point conversion, apparently they don't have a field goal kicker). They even had a chance to tie the score with the clock winding down but an interception was thrown in the end zone as the clock ticked to zero. Josh was feeling pretty good despite the loss. The eternal optimist was part of at least 30 tackles (if you asked him).