Mark McCormack, gifted teacher at Chattanooga Valley Elementary, has led his students to top positions in the Tennessee Division Stock Market game sponsored by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, First Tennessee Bank and Middle Tennessee State University. 

During the month of October, eight of his nine teams were ranked in the top 12 with nearly 600 teams participating.  His junior division teams of mostly fourth and fifth grade students even topped senior division schools such as Baylor, McCallie and GPS.

"It's really nothing I did," said McCormack.  "It is our teachers and the workshop model that have been so successful in teaching our students.  They are using their knowledge of math, economics, technology, writing, researching and analyzing in a real-life situation," he said.

Each team consists of four members with $100,000 to "invest" by making at least five transactions of $5,000 or more during the five weeks of the game.  Student teams also must hold a minimum of 100 shares.  All week, they check the progress of their choices and research other companies.  Then on Friday they boot up two computers for their trade time.  On one they make their trades while the other shows the real-time stock prices.

Joby Pickett, Kayla Hughes, and Mac Wortman share their stock market research with their instructor, Mark McCormack.