With Election Day looming, many teachers are incorporating the presidential race into their daily discussions and lessons.

“It’s important for them to understand what platforms and issues that these candidates are specifically touching on and how they’re planning to fix it or addressing it,” U.S. History Teacher Rachel Hudson said. “Whenever they’re old enough to vote and they don’t agree with who’s in office, they would be able to change it.”

During schedule pick up in August, Librarian Jennifer Rike and World Geography Teacher Lindsay Matthews held a voter registration drive with seniors.

“I try to get as many young people to vote as possible,” Matthews said.

In Matthews’ class, students who watched the debates and tweeted their reactions received extra credit.

“Everybody pays attention and it’s not hard for them to participate,” she said. “I teach freshmen so they can’t vote. My goal is that whenever they get to the point where they can, they’ll remember what they learned from my classroom.”

Students are making predictions on each state’s winning electoral vote in Matthews’ class.

“We’ve been looking at the electoral map,” she said. “On Election Day, we’ll see who got closest and they’ll get a prize.”

Hudson gave extra credit for those who watched the presidential debates.

“It’s important even if you can’t vote to be politically informed for what’s going on,” she said.

Matthews said she wants students to be educated citizens.

“As a social studies teacher, I feel like I’ll be doing them a disservice if I didn’t talk about it (the election),” she said. “I need to let them voice their opinions and have them understand how the political game is played.”

However, teachers are not allowed to discuss their personal opinions about the candidates.

“We’re not supposed to let our bias get in the way of teaching,” Hudson said. “So when we do talk about the debate it’s better for the students to think that we’re a neutral party and can (see) both sides of things with them rather than one.”

Hudson said she enjoys playing devil’s advocate.

“It’s really cool to see kids passionate about something and politics is one of those issues that can get someone fired up,” she said. “So to see them really standing for the issue, whether I agree with what their saying or not, is good to see that they are educated about it.”

It’s possible to work the election into discussion throughout the year, Matthews said.

“We just got done with the migration unit, so we talked about the refugee crisis and the pros (and) cons of immigration,” she said. “It’s so easy to tie the election in with everything we’re learning in class. It opens my kids’ eyes because they’re not just reading something out of a book.”

Early voting set records in Texas.

“One of our most important duties as an American citizen is to exercise our right to vote because we have the power to change the current state of our politics,” Matthews said. “Everyone’s complains about our elected officials but they don’t understand that it’s our fault. We’re the ones who elected them. So I try to pass that onto my kids.”