Walk into Kimberly Rhodman’s second-grade class at Dana Road Elementary School and the energy is evident.

Her classroom is bright and cheerful. Her students tackle classwork with enthusiasm. They gather around their teacher ready to ask questions and give answers.

“She does so many things to get her children interested in learning,” said friend Kathy Triplett. “Last year, her class was in an accelerated reading program and read almost 5,000 books, the most of any class in the school district. She is an inspiration to her students and to me. Last year, she lost 89 pounds and that inspired me to lose 84.”

So when Triplett saw the announcement in the July issue of Spry magazine seeking nominations for the Spry Inspiration Awards, she didn’t hesitate to nominate her friend as the Most Inspiring Teacher.

The publishers of the magazine, which is a regular feature in The Vicksburg Post, notified Rhodman on Sept. 9 that she had won the award.

“I was ecstatic,” she said. “I received an e-mail that said Spry magazine had some good news for me and wanted me to call them. I was sitting in my car and called. They said I had been nominated for an award and that I had won. It was mind-blowing.”

Her story will appear in the magazine’s December issue, which will appear in the Dec. 11 issue of The Vicksburg Post.

“We are very proud of her to be able to receive this award,” Dana Road principal Dr. Ethel Lassiter said. “We support her and any members of our staff who helped her receive it.”

Rhodman, 48, has been a teacher for 16 years, first at Bovina and then at Dana Road, where she has spent most of her career.

“She has always been concerned about her students,” Triplett said, adding that Rhodman’s weight loss served as an inspiration to help her students stay healthier.

“She was concerned about their health because of the obesity rate in Mississippi,” Triplett said. “She wanted to do something to make her students healthier. She really got started after Michelle Obama’s visit.”

Rhodman said she lost her weight through a combination of diet and exercise, adding that she decided to incorporate exercise and dance in the lesson plans for her students. The program began on the first day of school.

“I wanted to do something to make returning to school exciting,” she said. “Children return to school after the summer dreading to go back. So I began getting the children involved with exercise and music.”

The students have exercise sessions in the morning when school starts and in the afternoon. But the activity doesn’t stop with the workout sessions.

Rhodman incorporates music and dance during the school day as she teaches the students language arts.

“We’re teaching these students 4,000 words a year,” she said. “That’s a lot for them to remember. I began to include music and exercise with the lessons and found that the kids got excited and enjoyed it. We put the words to music and introduced dance steps to the words. It makes it easier for them to learn. They are able to better remember them.”

Her methods are spreading to other classrooms at the school.

“You can hear the music coming from other rooms,” she said. “It’s slowly catching on. One will start, then another, and then another.”

Rhodman and her class got the chance to demonstrate what they do Friday, when freelance photographers Tami and Stephen Johnson from Jackson visited the school to photograph her and the class for the magazine. It was a session that included exercise class and individual photos of Rhodman and Triplett.

“I couldn’t think of anyone better,” Triplett said. “When the magazine called me and said she had won, I was very happy.”