By By Adrienne McKenzie
Perdido Elementary/Middle School’s Gerri McDonald was recently awarded as Elementary Economics Teacher of the Year for the State of Alabama.
McDonald teaches Humanities and Project Jubilee at Perdido School and was honored by the Alabama Council on Economics Education at an awards and recognition luncheon in Birmingham.
This is the first time in 10 years that the Alabama Council on Economics Education has recognized outstanding Economics Teachers of the Year. McDonald’s winning of the award stemmed from the Stock Market Game she has implemented for her fourth-eighth grade classes.
McDonald said teams must pay a 2 percent broker fee in order to buy or sell a stock and at the end of a 10-week period, teams with the highest portfolio value win.
McDonald has been a teacher at Perdido School for the last seven years and she has applied the Stock Market Game for the past three years in fourth-eighth grade classes.
The Stock Market Game is played during both fall and spring semesters and McDonald’s students have placed in the Top 10 during each session. In three of these sessions, McDonald’s students have placed first.
But this isn’t the first time McDonald has been awarded for her Stock Market Game techniques.
McDonald’s trip to New York two years ago was a part of the “Wall Street Experience,” where she was able to see how the Stock Market Game was created and she visited the New York Stock Exchange. In the fall McDonald was sent back to New York for a week-long workshop, which was held at the New York Stock Exchange.
McDonald now teaches Stock Market Game workshops throughout the southern region of Alabama in order to pass along the importance of understanding economics in all walks of life.