Perdido Elementary/Middle School teacher Gerri McDonald was one of fifteen teachers in Alabama who was honored for excellence in economic education and inducted into the inaugural class of the Alabama Economic Educators Hall of Fame in Birmingham.

McDonald was inducted to the hall during a late October luncheon event featuring former Governor Bob Riley as the keynote speaker.

McDonald and her students at Perdido have been recognized frequently by ACEE.  She was selected to attend the weeklong economics workshop held at the New York Stock Exchange, was chosen to write curriculum for economics at the International Cooperative Education Exchange Program in Economics held in Washington D.C. and was named both Alabama Economics Teacher of the Year and ACEE Master Teacher of Economics.  McDonald’s students have consistently placed in the top 10 every year in the Stock Market Game, and have placed first six times.  They have also placed first and second in the state in the “Whit King: Entrepreneurship and the American Free Enterprise Essay Contest” two years in a row.  Showing off their understanding of economic concepts and creativity, student have placed in the top twelve in the state for the past five years in the “Color the Concepts” competition as well.

“Many people underrate economics as a subject for all students, believing economics is only about money,” McDonald said. “More importantly, economics teaches students how to make informed decisions, including managing everything from their allowance and how to ‘budget’ their time, to becoming entrepreneurs. Elementary and middle school age students have the imagination, drive and ability to come up with innovative ways to change our world for the better.  It is our job as teachers to give them the tools to make informed choices for now and for their futures.”

The Alabama Council on Economic Education was founded in 1969, and is supported and led primarily by the private economic sector of Alabama. Headquartered in Birmingham, ACEE is a statewide organization that provides training and economic education, as well as financial literacy curriculum and programs for teachers and students in K-12 in both public and private schools.

“We have a vision of every student graduating from Alabama’s schools with superior economic education and the knowledge, understanding and skills to make successful economic decisions” said Johnnie Aycock, managing director of ACEE.  “Through the Economic Educator Hall of Fame, we had the opportunity to recognize and honor exceptional teachers in Alabama that are having a significant impact on our young people’s knowledge of economic, personal finance and entrepreneurship.”

The mission of ACEE is to assist in the educational process for all students by developing economic ways of thinking and problem solving, which will ensure their future as informed consumers, knowledgeable savers and investors, productive members of management and the workforce, and effective citizens in today’s local, state, national and global economies.