Peet Junior High鈥檚 Venessa Wallace Honored as 2024 Texas Environmental Educator of the Year
CONROE, TEXAS (March 22, 2024) 鈥� Coach Venessa Wallace鈥檚 portable is usually crammed wall-to-wall with students, but no one seems to mind. When you teach Wildlife Management 鈥� the most popular class at Peet Junior High 鈥� an overflowing roster just comes with the territory.
Recognizing her work as a stand-out teacher in environmental education, Coach Wallace was recently selected as the 鈥�2024 Texas Environmental Educator of the Year鈥� by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Governor Greg Abbott. This award recognizes Wallace鈥檚 outstanding teaching initiatives in advanced environmental conservation, including preserving productive and healthy ecosystems, principles of land stewardship, and sustainable fishing and hunting.
Asked about receiving the prestigious governor鈥檚 award, Coach Wallace shared, 鈥淎nimal conservation and welfare has always been a passion of mine. I鈥檓 grateful for the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience with kids so we can leave this place better than we found it.鈥�
Kids who sign up for Wildlife Management figure out pretty quickly that this isn鈥檛 any ordinary elective. In addition to being certified teachers for 麻豆女郎, Coach Wallace and her teaching partner, Coach Dawn Davis, are both certified instructors with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, which enables their junior high students to earn official state certifications in Hunter Ed. Safety, Water Safety, Boating Ed. Safety, NASP Archery, Shelter Building, and more.
鈥淟earning archery was the best,鈥� said Russell Rousseau, a 7th grader who鈥檚 completed the first class in a two-course curriculum designed by Coaches Wallace and Davis. 鈥淚t turns out, I鈥檓 really good at archery, and I never would have found that out if I hadn鈥檛 taken Wildlife Management.鈥�
Coach Davis, who introduced Wildlife Management to Peet Junior High six years ago, has also received many accolades as an outstanding teacher, including 鈥淧rofessional Educator of the Year,鈥� first recipient of the 鈥淣ext Generation Award,鈥� and the 鈥淧resident鈥檚 Lifetime Achievement Award鈥� for volunteering over 4,000 hours with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.
Reflecting on the impact of her Wildlife Management courses, Coach Davis shared, 鈥淕od has blessed me with teaching and coaching for 33 years 鈥� all in the Conroe area. Building this course from scratch has been six years of hard work and dedication. I wanted to create a class that students would want to take, while staying within TEA [Texas Education Agency] guidelines. Since it began, this class has had a waiting list of students, so hiring another full-time teacher was needed, and Wallace has been an integral part of growing this program.鈥�
On any given day, Wildlife Management students might tend vegetable and flower gardens that they built themselves around campus, practice archery, analyze animal skeletons and anatomy, fish 鈥淏ackyard Bass鈥� (cast fishing lines up to 30 yards in a grass field of plastic fish), design floral arrangements, investigate the effects of littering, drought, and flooding at a creek that runs behind the school, or study Texas Parks & Wildlife manuals at picnic tables in the outdoor learning center, which students designed and built themselves.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a really, really fun class,鈥� said student Emily Atkinson. 鈥淭he coolest activity was aging different deer just based on their jawbones. A lot of kids thought it was gross, but I thought it was really cool.鈥�
Environmental learning doesn鈥檛 just happen in the classroom, outdoor learning center, or campus. Each semester, Coaches Wallace and Dawn Davis collaborate with the San Jacinto River Authority to take over 250 students to Lake Conroe and put their classroom skills into practice. For many 12- and 13-year-olds, it鈥檚 their first time catching a fish.
鈥淭hese kids are learning skills they鈥檒l use in the real world,鈥� said Coach Davis. 鈥淚鈥檝e received emails from parents whose kids knew how to fish during COVID to help their family with food, whose kids knew how to grow vegetables from seeds. I even had a parent whose boat broke down in the Gulf of Mexico, and their student knew what to do in that emergency situation to get them back safely. That鈥檚 what this class is all about.鈥�
Later this month, a documentary team will visit Peet Junior High to film interviews, activities, and lessons in the Wildlife Management program, in preparation for the awards ceremony where Coach Wallace will be honored as Texas鈥� Environmental Educator of the Year.