Obama Sings Happy Birthday To Virginia Teacher

It's not every day you get to be serenaded by the President of the United States.

But on Monday, that's what happened to Wakefield High School teacher Collette Fraley.

President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard paid a visit the Arlington, Va., school Monday.  And Monday also happened to be the 2011 Virginia Teacher of the Year's birthday. So the president led Fraley's 11th grade AP history class in a rendition of "Happy Birthday."

The president also knew a little bit more about Fraley.

"Before she started teaching she was a journalist, so she decided to make a change and do something useful," Obama said.

Laughter ensued.

"I couldn't resist," Obama added.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a former education minister, then gave the students what she called "kind of a pop quiz on Australia." The White House press corps reporter said the students, unfortunately, didn't give many correct answers. There were questions about Australia's population, it's size compared to the U.S. and Australian football rules. We can't blame the students for not knowing much about that last topic...

The students then got a chance to ask questions of the PM. Those included the ever-popular "What about Vegemite?" (Gillard said she disagreed with Obama's assessment that it is awful) and eventually moved into discussions of recent flooding and the cyclone that hit Australia.

This was not Obama's first visit to Wakefield. He gave his national address to students from the school in 2009.

"I had less gray the last time I came here," Obama told the students on Monday.

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