By Tristan Griffiths, Cole Provost, and Kardin Nguyen 7th grade students part of SYL (strong young leader)

Mr. Pettengill is a 6th grade English and History teacher who has been educating students at Montera Middle School for four years now. He was born in Chicago and is a former teacher/volunteer coming from different schools such as Montclair Elementary, Sequoia Elementary, and a few other preschools. His college education started off at the University of Illinois, but he got his teaching degree at Cal State East Bay in Hayward.

He wanted to be a teacher because he believes education is the number one tool for people to improve their lives, especially financially. He likes to teach English as he believes that language is the most powerful tool that us people have. As for teaching history, it is a subject that interests him.

His wife brought him to Oakland from Illinois over 10 years ago and that is how he found himself here. He then got a job recommendation to work at Montera Middle School as a reading intervention specialist.

His goals for his students are to become excellent critical thinkers and to go beyond, doing more than just the basic requirements. His hobbies include music and dance. He is also interested in hip-hop culture and likes to hike. In the future, he would want to retire and run a bar somewhere warm.

Currently, he lives in Oakland in the Maxwell Park area with three cats and a teenage son. His favorite color is deep blue, which is also a color he wears a lot. His favorite movie is Adaptation, a complex movie about a writer struggling to transform a book into a movie. The movie goes through the writer’s process of doing that, and it includes interesting, smart, and funny moments.

Favorite Music: God Fahim, Earth Gang, Megan Thee Stallion, and Black Star, Black Coffee, and other Chicago artists.

What He'd Bring to a Desert Island: the World Atlas

Dream Travel Destination: South Pacific.