After three years teaching at East Elementary, Brownwood native Cole Pennington will return to his alma mater for the 2023-24 school year to serve as the lead History teacher at Brownwood High School.

Pennington, 26, comes from a family of teachers, stating, “My mom’s a teacher, so is my uncle and an aunt, so I’ve always been around it. I’ve always loved History. In college I studied Physical Therapy my first year and then I decided I wasn’t all that interested in it and wanted to do something that I had an interest in and liked, so I switched to teaching for History. I was going to coach, but I decided I wanted to just focus on teaching History, so I switched my major and got into it.”

After graduating from Brownwood High in 2014 and Howard Payne University in 2019, Pennington moved to Wyoming to attempt to enter the teaching field, but returned to his roots a year later.

“My mom’s side of the family lives in Wyoming so I wanted to try something different at a place I knew a little,” he said. “I tried to get a teaching job up there but it’s so competitive you can’t get into their system. I worked at a country club up there, which I have experience with from here too, and did that and made ends meet until I got back. I missed my friends and family. Growing up here called me back.  There’s just something about Brownwood. I’m familiar with everything, I know pretty much everyone and it’s where I like to be. It’s home.”

Pennington was tutoring at East Elementary when a position opened.

“I was doing a tutoring job there where my mom worked,” he said. “The third grade job opened midyear of my first year tutoring there, so the principal asked if I would take it. I enjoyed doing that for three years. This last year I wanted to try what I actually went to school for which is high school History. I interviewed for the job in April and got the job, so I’m excited to try that new chapter coming up.”

Regarding what he’ll miss most about teaching young students, Pennington said, “For me it’s definitely the relationships with the kids. All the difficulties and struggles, the relationships you have with the those kids and getting to see them every day and getting to interact with them on a positive level and have that relationship with them is what makes it worth it. You can walk in and know how to interact with each kid. Some days can be tougher and sometimes they make it tougher, but they can also make a tough day really positive.”

As for walking into his new role as History lead at BHS, Pennington said, “I feel some pressure because the History department has had some turnover here recently. Just turning 27 next month I feel that’s pretty young to be a department lead, especially when I haven’t even taught high school yet. I feel pressure to succeed, I don’t want to let them down, and I want to bring a new energy and revitalize that department. I think that’s partly why I was hired, I think they saw I could bring energy to the role and maybe relate better to the students with my age.”

During the summer, Pennington keeps himself busy working at Brownwood Country Club.

“This is my eighth year and my fourth year managing the cabana which is the pool side bar out there,” he said. “This summer I had a staff of seven kids and they’re around college age or just out of high school. That really helps me build relationships with high school-aged kids which is what I’m going to be teaching, so it’s definitely been a positive for me.”