Aycock High teacher wins supplies for students
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on December 30, 2015 1:46 PM
An English teacher at Charles B. Aycock High School shared a post on Facebook and netted his students $1,000 worth of school supplies.
Tony Coggins, who teaches ninth- and 10th-grade English at his alma mater, actually forgot about the sweepstakes until an attorney tracked him down.
The contest, Citgo's "Fueling Education," was a promotion to help engage and motivate students. Then Citgo randomly chose 112 educators from across the nation to win $1,000 worth of supplies from National School Supply.
"I think you just had to share the post and tag it," he said. "The funny thing about it was that apparently I was notified by e-mail but it went to spam. So much time had passed, I forgot all about it.
"It was after school. I had a strange call on my phone. I answered it and it was the Citgo lawyer, contacting me."
Still skeptical, he admits he thought it was a scam. Until he investigated further.
"I checked it out. The e-mail was in (the spam folder)," he said.
The contest winners could purchase $1,000 worth of items from National School Supply, a company that caters to educators.
"It was like a credit to an account," Coggins said. "I had to spend it all at once and I had a month to do it.
"My initial thought was I need more technology. That's a big push and I was limited but I did get a document camera. It's great to be able to project something instead of making 80 copies for my students."
He was also able to make the money go toward curriculum resources and "a ton of art supplies," he said, filling up a cabinet in his classroom.
Like many teachers these days, he said he often finds students unable to afford sufficient supplies, so tries to do his part to help.
"I give a lot of supplies to my students," he says. "I try to make my supply list as low as possible because in high school it adds up. I'm always trying to keep my supply list under $10."
With that in mind, in addition to some of the big-ticket items, he was able to purchase a surplus of color pencils, "markers that will last for years" and in turn share some of his winnings with other teachers.
"We got teacher resources, supplemental things we will be able to use in our department," he said. "I bought some fun things, like a life-sized version of Shakespeare."
It quickly added up, he said, plus included shipping.
"It was a ton of supplies -- bulletin board stuff, test-taking information, so that (students) could have another visual for the classroom," he said.
Despite the economy, and because of contests like the one he recently won, his sixth year of teaching at CBA has been particularly positive.
"We have actually been very blessed this year," he said. "We have had a lot of help -- Salem United Methodist Church sponsored some grants for teachers and there's a family that last year started a scholarship."
Coggins, who attend CBA until his junior year, when his family moved to Thomasville, said he felt like he had come full circle when he was hired by Principal Dr. Earl Moore.
"This school always felt like home. I loved this school," he said. "The way the school has grown, it feels like a different place.
"It's been really nice, though, to be able to give back to the area I was given such a good education, that I get to come back and work with the teachers that inspired me."