Shirlie Bacon, a fourth grade teacher at Holliman, was recently awarded the NBC 10 Golden Apple for taking learning beyond the classroom with such ventures as Marathon Club and Mini City, two programs that are specific to the fourth grade at Holliman.

Bacon said she was very honored and surprised to receive the award.

“I feel I do what I can for the kids every year, so to know that the parents and students appreciate it means a lot,” she said. “It’s interesting that the award focuses on extra things teachers do because we’re always looking for ways to get kids interested in what they’re learning.”

Bacon said both Marathon Club and Mini City are done through a collaboration with her teaching partners.

“I couldn’t do it without my teaching partners,” she said.

Bacon said she started Marathon Club last year with Melissa Hatch.

“We’re both runners and we were looking for a way to use goal setting along with physical movement,” said Bacon, a self-proclaimed marathon runner. “We look at accomplishing a large goal by taking small steps.”

Bacon said once a week, usually on Wednesdays, she and Hatch bring students to the Pilgrim High School track and students complete four laps around the track, or one mile.

“For each lap they complete, they get to color in a bar on a shoe and once the shoe is filled up, they’ve run a marathon,” she said. “The kids love it. They get disappointed when we don’t have it, which is usually due to weather.”

With Mini City, which has been going for 15 years, Bacon said students learn about economics and the responsibility of a citizen to vote, as they determine things such as a flag and type of currency for their city by majority vote.

“And they each have two jobs, one to benefit the society and another to run a business to market or promote a product for use in the society that other students can purchase, such as a craft or school supply,” she said. “If their parents purchase items or materials for their product, students have to do an out-of-the-ordinary chore. Students are paid for the job they do [using the city currency] as well as for completing assignments, such as homework, which they can then use in Mini City.”

Bacon said two business days will be held before December vacation. The first is for students, or the citizens of each mini society, to shop at the businesses in their own as well as the other mini society. The second is for parents and other family members to shop using city currency, which can be obtained by donating an item to the auction, such as school supplies, small toys, games, or holiday gift items, which is held at the end of Mini City.

Bacon has been teaching for 26 years, all in Warwick (she even student taught in Warwick), and has been at Holliman for 23 years, mostly teaching fourth grade.

“I’m very fortunate to work with wonderful teaching partners. It’s a collaboration; they’re open to new ideas, which we use to try and keep things fresh for the students,” she said. “Being at the same school for so long, I now have kids from former students.”

With endeavors like Marathon Club and Mini City, Bacon said she feels like fourth grade has a reputation to uphold.

“We also do Create a State as part of the U.S. Geography unit, where kids create their own state and hold a fair for parents to attend and learn about the states,” she said. “Students must design their own flag, come up with a song and perform it, do a commercial, create maps, and identify a famous person from their state. What they come up with every year is amazing.”

Bacon said she enjoys the uniqueness of each class she teaches.

“What I enjoy most is that every year is a chance to see a new group of students take on the same skills,” she said. “It’s always a different experience, even though you’re teaching the same material.”

Bacon said it’s not always easy finding ways to relate that material to a group of students.

“What’s most challenging is trying to personalize a generalized curriculum to students,” she said. “When students enter the work force, the job they may have may not exist right now, so we try to teach things like teamwork, cooperation and compromise, life skills they can use to be successful no matter what job they will have.”

While she’s honored to receive the award, Bacon said she didn’t earn it by herself.

“I want to recognize the collaboration of teaching partners, as well as the parents and students because without them, this all falls apart,” she said.