Tonight my sister and I ate supper with our nephew and his family. Our nephews son, Garrett McDonald, attends Walton High School in DeFuniak Springs, Florida. You recently spoke to the students at Walton High and have so impressed Garrett and therefore us. Garrett almost repeated your speech in its entirety, He told us of you for a good thirty minutes. Now Garrett doesn’t talk much around his Great Aunts other than short answers to questions we have asked. I want to thank you Mr. Peters for the positive impact you have made. Garrett is already a great young man, but his admiration of you and the qualitities have you inspire in a fourteen year old is heart warming to the core.

I Thank you,

Blessings to you Sir!
Our faculty, students and staff are still raving over the inspiration, encouragement and challenge you presented to us on yesterday. I have had so many great comments and powerful feedback; you were awesome! Thank you so much for what you do and for who you are to the profession, to people and the gift to the world!

God Bless You and please keep in touch!

Today was a fantastic staff development. During this time last year I was ready to give up on teaching. However so many things keep happening here that are more confirmations that I am supposed to be a teacher and here is where I’m supposed to be. Today was more inspiration and motivation for me. On another note I have taught single gender girls and if offered I would do it again. Thank you for the opportunity to be apart of this school.

I just want to say thank you for coming to our school Mr. Peters. Now I realize you don’t have to be rich to be successful. Watching the video clip of all the famous people and their flaws made me realize no one is perfect. I will now strive to do my best. Way better than what I have. Thanks for the autograph. It now sits in my mirror. Now when I wake up I will say to myself “that’s who I want to be”. Option 1 is what I chose: Pay now and play later!

How can a mere “thank-you” suffice? We are so appreciative for the gift of inspiration!! Your generosity and the support of the Peters Group is dually noted. Below is a message from just one of many teachers who are so full of gratitude and ready to pour into our children. This one is near and dear to me. I’ll share her story when we see you all at IoP. My budget is non-existent at this point, but I have teachers who are willing to pay their own way as a result of yesterday’s presentation. On my way to the D.O. to request additional support! (lol)

I would like to thank you for taking the time to speak to our class about your book. It was a pleasure to be able to ask you questions about the book we read in class this semester. I enjoyed learning about your background and personal beliefs about education. I was very impressed with how much financial support you give to student’s whose family members are unable to send them to college. I think this is very admirable and think more people should follow your lead. I intend to take your book back home to Bermuda and use it as a guide when I’m teaching. I’m glad our class had the opportunity to meet you Dr. Peters and I really appreciate the positive feedback you gave us.

I’m writing to express my deepest appreciation for you taking the time out of your busy schedule to Skype our class here at AAMU. I must say your book brought that extra thing we needed to maximize the class’s purpose and potential. Once again thank you so much and I look forward to reading more of your material.

My name is Billie Green and I am a student of Dr. Tammy Alexander (Alabama A&M University). I just wanted to take the time to let you know how blessed I was by your conversation via Skype on Monday morning. I am still in awe of the wisdom and knowledge that you shared with us regarding education. You have truly imparted some “Golden Nuggets” that I will treasure for a lifetime. I am also grateful for Dr. Alexander in sharing your book with our class this semester, “Do You Know Enough About Me To Teach Me”. I have never had a textbook that was both beneficial for my education as well as, my practical life. Through your book and our recent conversation, I must say that I have been captured, inspired, and taught invaluable lessons that will follow me throughout my teaching career. Thank You and may God continue to richly bless you.

This was a great organization that came to Halifax County. I am part of the Gentlemen’s Club at Halifax and I really do enjoy the program. The programs help me in a lot of ways one way it help me was to make better choices and to make honor roll. I have never made the honor roll before until I was in the club. I am a twelfth grader here and as a twelfth grader I try to help other and also some of the members of the Gentlemen’s Club here to better themselves and have a bright future. It would be an honor if you all could call or stop by to give us some advice on how to do things better and give us ways top raise money so we can do more things. One more thing we also went to the Martin Luther King Memorial and it was a history making thing for us. Without the club here I would have never gone to the memorial. It’s a lot more I can say but I am going to keep it short. So thanks for the organization and we do appreciate the things you all are doing.

“I wanted to give you an update: So far, this year is off to a great start. I feel as though my whole midset has changed. Last year I dreaded coming to school. THere were mornings I would cry on the way to work because I just did not want to go. This year has been so different. I arrive smiling and leave smiling. Although it is early I am so hopeful. I am not sure if it was you or one of the other authors that said this, but I have memorized and lived by one of the quotes that I heard, “Know the culture, eliminate the mindset, and unload the baggage.”

I spent the first two days just as you said, no books. I just spent time building relationships. I used your “Getting to know you” sheet and one of the other ones you had that I tweeked a little, and it turned out really cool. I feel as though I found out a lot through that process. My favorite unfinished sentence, I gave them was “If you really knew me…..” I also wrote the parents asking them for information about their children. That was really good. I got great feedback. I now know the children that get bullied, are scared of failing, who have ADD, and who just had a really bad year last year and fearing this year. YOu can find out a lot through that.

Another thing I did that I got from you was the A Honor Roll. I thought they might think it was stupid, but no, they loved it. A couple of my special needs kids pumped their fist in the air, whispering loudly, “YES!” I really hammed up it. THey loved it. You would have thought it was the real thing. One of the little boys came back the next day to tell me that his mom is taking him to The Golden Coral this weekend because of it. (And I was worried the parents would think it was stupid.)

Yesterday was my birthday. I shared it with one of my students. I have never done much for kids on their birthday, but I just could not get over you talking about the fact that this may be the only birthday party some of these kids will ever get. So, I went to the Dollar Tree and and bought a $0.50 card, some candy bars (for her to choose from for a gift), and $4 worth of brownies, and had a party at the end of the day. SHe smiled ALL DAY! I told one of boys that if he would get me his football schedule I would come to atleast one of his games. I am going to try to go this Saturday. I forgot how much fun teaching could be.

Thanks again for your encouragement and prayers,”