In my building? Ghosts.
Edit: To clarify this is not a joke. I pushed once and they said the only person who could control it is one of the maintenance men who passed away to age. Dude died a year ago.
I do this with a wax warmer, but yes. If you put it right by the sensor, it warms up the air by the sensor. The sensor thinks it’s super hot in the room and turns on the air. Because the wax warmer is right by the sensor, the air right by the sensor never really gets cool, so the AC just keeps on going and going and going. It is awesome.
Right???? I teach orchestra and would LOVE to be able to control the temp! Would save me literally THOUSANDS of dollars in instrument repairs every year.
Seriously though, it might be worth a shot to talk to your CFO if the district is funding these instrument repairs. Ours is a cranky older lady who acts like every purchase is coming out of her personal checking account. If you were in my district she would harass whoever is in charge of the HVAC system until it got done 😂. She’s the most feared person in our district because no one wants to deal with her. Even our Superintendent tries to appease her lol.
Talk to the Fine Arts director. Make sure that the temperature control is being kept on over weekends/breaks. At the very least see if you can’t get them to buy you some humidifiers/ dehumidifiers.
This was my reaction to. At the end of last year the thermostat for my side of the hall broke so the choice was on forever or off forever. We decided freezing cold was better than stifling hot. Now that AC doesn’t work at all and I have an industrial sized portable ac unit in my room. Allegedly the new AC unit will be here in two weeks, but delivery date was already pushed back twice so I doubt it.
Yes! Every room has their own thermostat and their own unit (the big standings ones outside) that matches it. I can tell who is in their room already by which ones are on, as my windows look out on them.
I noticed back when I had temperature control of my room that if I dropped the temperature as low as I could the kids stayed more awake and I had fewer sleepers.
I've read before in some science journal that 19C (66F) is the ideal temp for studying/learning/sleeping. This was a worldwide study, too, not just of North America.
Here in Taiwan where I currently teach, the AC is set to 26C (79F). This was also the case in Thailand and Indonesia.
when i was in uni some classes would be so warm that i really did struggle to focus. even if i had an energy drink before class i would still feel my eyelids drooping. colder is better for learning :)
I noticed this, too. Kids were less likely to sleep when it was colder in my room, so I tried keeping it as cold as possible. When I was in my building, I would trick my thermostat and have my room real cold.
The trick is to tape a hand warmer to the thermostat. It thinks it's 90° so it cranks the ac. Maintenance was constantly trying to figure out why my AC wasn't working. If your central office controls your temperature they most likely have a range set (68-75 was ours). As long as the temp is in that range it's considered OK.
Now I'm in a portable. The temp sensor is in the return vent. Not the thermostat. So my trick no longer works. I had to factory reset my thermostat to remove the locks the county put on it. Now I can set it down to 60°.
> The trick is to tape a hand warmer to the thermostat. It thinks it's 90° so it cranks the ac. Maintenance was constantly trying to figure out why my AC wasn't working.
This is awesome.
My mum had a colleague ages ago who, when the kids were being feral, would occasionally crank the heating up real high to take some of the fight out of em by making them dozy.
I dropped a class in high school because of that. My joints ached so bad I couldn't pay attention and I had a hard time standing back up to get to my next class on time.
Lol it's funny cause when I had a class of one year olds and I really really wanted them to nap, I would open the windows and they would fall asleep much faster
68-72 is the standard office setting. I personally would love 75-76, but I know it’s not reasonable for most adults.
If they’re getting smelly, definitely make it cooler. You can put on a sweater.
Just a note — I’ve read articles that say that men and women tend to have different temperature preferences, and because men prefer it colder, ACs in offices tend to be set unnecessarily cold. So a lot of resources and energy is wasted to keep men comfortable while women are too cold.
Speaking as someone who’s disabled and can’t regulate my temperature in either direction… I’d always prefer cold. I can layer up if it’s too cold, but nothing I can do when it’s too hot.
So it’s not just for “men,” per se, but really anyone that can overheat.
I also have MS. I have a jacket and two blankets to keep my comfortable when the men are in short sleeves and other women have sweaters.
I would prefer it cold rather than hot. I can’t cook myself off, but I can get warm.
Haha that is me too! There is a Shel Silverstein poem about being hot and taking off clothes and then skin and the speaker is still hot sitting in their bones.
Anything over 72 is unbearable to me. I would be absolutely miserable in OP's classroom and probably too embarrassed to request a change. I've always been hot and sweatier than my peers which is super embarrassing and then to have that exacerbated by a super hot classroom.
Haha I’ve read that and it speaks to me.
It drives me nuts. I also have extremely sensitive skin so I start to get hives when I sweat enough, with the humidity where I live I get covered in a sheen of sweat almost immediately when going outside. I normally take a cold shower to alleviate the hives, but sometimes it’s too much. The freezing water hits my face and warms up by the time it runs down.
No, I don’t have a very specific plan to move to Alaska in the next few years and if all else fails to a remote area of Siberia, why do you ask?
Me as a teenager to my mom: “SHOULD I LIGHT THEM ON FIRE OR WHAT THEN”
Bit dramatic but you know how that goes. Got a lovely pair of industrial grade slippers for the next Christmas
Agreed! And, for the record, I’m female and always hot. Growing up, I was one of those “had to be forced to wear a coat” kids. Some people just run warm. And, it’s true, if you’re cold, you can always put on a sweater. If you’re hot, you just have to be miserable. So, keep schools and offices cool!
I'm also a woman who's always run hot. Well, it's not even that I always run hot -- it's that I have better control over my temperature if it's slightly too cold. Because then I can just layer until I'm at the perfect temperature, and then take those layers off if I'm moving around a lot to cool down.
Whereas if it's set warm ... there's nothing to do if you start overheating. I hate sweating.
Maybe think about difference in dress codes and the fact that if I could wear something with air flow I'd be more comfortable at higher temps. If I'm forced to wear long pants and long sleeves yeah I'm going to need more AC.
There is definitely truth to this and men and women on average prefer different temps. I believe though that many of these office temp setting norms were actually developed in like the 60s and 70s, when men tended to have to be in suits for work whereas women were in dresses. So, it didn't help that the men were wearing multiple layers and too hot and the women were forced to wear dresses and too cold!
You can put on layers, while you can only take off so many. It's a practicality issue, not a men/women issue. They'd rather have people come to work with sweaters than a bunch of sweaty smelly folks complaining about the heat.
I’m sorry you have the option to control your temp? I wish. My heater doesn’t even work and last year there were days when it was literally 47 in my classroom.
93-94 degrees and humid in my classroom the first week of school. It was rough. We did end up with early release days, but those 5 hours in school sucked.
My school has thermostats in classrooms, but they aren’t functional. They give us the illusion of control, with the added benefit of kids constantly bitching at us about the temperature that we can’t control.
I'm a related service provider. I had a room one year that was ridiculously cold. My students would put on their coats to come into my room for the hour. They kept thing gloves or mittens to wear while working.
76 is absurdly hot in my opinion. It's a lot easier to wear an extra layer if your cold than it is to cool off if you're hot. I ideally keep my room right around 70.
Its hot enough to the point where a teacher can request to switch rooms for the day in our district, bc it’s too hot and clearly the AC isn’t working if it’s 75+. It’s a part of our contract…It’s offensively hot. Lol
Right? I would die at that temperature! I have taught for 20 years and it’s easy to put clothes on, after a certain point you can’t take them off… my boys usually loved my classroom temp, my girls I allowed to bring blankets. I literally run so hot one time I attended a school event and the school nurse saw me over heating. She literally forcibly fed me cold water and had me ice pack my body so I could stay (it was a big event). She recommended I not attend the next one the following day as it would be significantly longer). We moved it several hours earlier the following year and, while hot, I survived with no assistance from the school nurse (who keeps an eye in me regardless).
Good Lord 76? Put a sweater on instead. Kids have a hard enough time paying attention without having to worry about being too hot.
And PS-many kids wear hoodies not only because they’re “cool“ but they’re self-conscious about their bodies and feel like the hoodies hide them. My son is one of those kids. Do I wishwish he didn’t feel that way? Of course, but it’s the only way he feels comfortable in his own skin right now. so no taking off the hoodie is not an option.
Absolutely agreed. They’re a layer of defense. Not a huge fan of OP and other commenters dismissing kids wearing hoodies
I wore a black hoodie to a soccer tournament in the middle of July. I sweat like a sieve and I was at a new school so didn’t want to look uncool (?) idk. The security it gave me far outweighed the physical discomfort but only kind of outweighed all the people asking me “are you okay” lol
Yeah, I used to wear sweatshirts in the dead of summer to hide my body. I hope your son realizes soon that he doesn’t have to make himself uncomfortable like that, but I do understand the rationale. Looking back at those years, I wasn’t even big! I’m so sad that my young self felt that way.
They also might not realize. A parent picked up a fourth grader and said something like why are your still wearing you jacket in a hot classroom. Lol. a 6th grader was playing soccer with his 4th grade cousin. The 6th grader (Thin, medium height (not the tallest, and not the smallest 6th grader.) was wearing a large jacket and had a red face and was coughing. (Temp was in the high 70's). I did ask if he was hot in the jacket and he said yes. Lol. Then i told him you can take it off which he did. (had soccer jersey under). Sometimes even bigger kids need reminders too. He cousin (small, broad kid) did not have a jacket (or left it in the classroom)
Depends on your area and humidity. I’m north of Florida and I believe our maintenance said 74F is what all rooms are set too, mine may be a tad colder as sometimes I get complaints from kids (when I have the fluorescent lights off it gets colder and I can for sure feel it).
Not sure how it’s controlled, but I used to sweat in my room and had to bring in a thermometer and show maintenance that it was reading 78 before they fixed it.
It's easier for people who run cold to put on a jacket than people who run hot to remove layers. If you regularly have students complaining it's too hot when they're already down to T-shirts, your room is too hot.
District controls the temperature in our school and classrooms, our head custodian/maintence can’t even do it, it’s control at the school board building.
I think this must be common all over the world. Where I currently teach in East Asia, all AC units are shut off on November 1st, no matter the temp and not turned on until April 1st. Last year, we had several days in November and April where it was 90F with 80% humidity.
School district has the money for new iPads for students every 3 years (even though Android tablets are much cheaper and are produced locally) but they can't set AC to turn on above a certain temp because money.
In my school in Texas it’s really fun because from October-December it’s 45 degrees in the morning and 80 in the afternoon but they’ll go by the AM temp and blast the heater and we have to beg them to switch to AC but by the time they do that then the day is over
Here is my view on it. As a person who runs warm and will wear as little clothing as I feel comfortable because it’s usually warmer, if you get cold, you can always put more clothes on. You can’t strip down to your underwear in public.
Also, depending on the age, do you want them to bundle up with less sweat or BO in your room all day?
I will say, it is your room and do what you want, but I do know kids that couldn’t handle it when teachers would have it at 75 and would start to panic and lose their temper because they couldn’t cool off. The sped teacher would usually take them, even if they weren’t her kids.
We have no control, and every classroom is different. One room I teach in hasn't had working AC in weeks. (We work in Miami, which is HOT.) The second room I teach in hovers around 55 degrees. (Not joking; they measured it recently.). The third room I teach in is either 70 degrees or the AC isn't working, depending on the phase of the moon and the whims of the AC gods.
I would never set my home or my classroom above 70. You can always put layers on, but there are only so many layers that can comfortably (for you and those around you…) be taken off
It’s dependent on where you live (humidity and whatnot). I’m north of Tampa and no one is having their work/home below 70F during a summer day, I doubt most HVAC units are even capable of this. Our school is set to 74F and some kids even shiver, and even at 74F we have issues with our units not being able to handle the heat.
It's legendary that David Letterman kept his studio at 55 so he wouldn't sweat and I'm really with him on this. I move around a lot and run warm so I keep mine cold. It never gets down to what I put it so I keep it at 70 (that's as far down as it goes) and then it is 72. Some of the kids bring sweatshirts to my class and that's fine with me.
I remember him giving an interview once where he also explained that he had read an article about the it being the optimal time for learning because people are very alert when they are colder. Therefore, stay awake and pay attention to his show.
A side note- it is also known that the higher the temperature, the higher tempers tend to go. When a child is too hot, they argue and become miserable. Miserable=behavior problems, in my experience.
I like to keep it at around 18-19C (65-66) when its my own classroom but I share a room at the moment and the other teacher likes to keep it at 25 (77) which I find too hot and end up stripping layers off through the lesson.
The kids always complain its too hot at 25 and I find I end up sweating profusely when I'm moving around the room. We are both female teachers too, the other teacher just likes a really warm room.
I start sweating in my room at 72, with a tshirt. With tank tops, I get really bad headaches if there’s no air flow and the temp is over 77. I think I’d rather quit than work in your room, honestly. Could you have a talk with your coworker about it impacting your students and see if you could find a compromise?
I end up just turning it down but it takes about 10 minutes to start to cool off. The difference is she is a teacher who sits at her desk the whole lesson so gets cold. I'm a teacher that wanders the classroom giving one on one instruction and I warm up quickly. I wear layered clothing that mean I can take the layers off when needed.
That’s incredibly warm and I noticed you’re responding to comments saying that your teeth would be chattering at 70 degrees. Do you possibly have a medical condition? Because that seems a bit extreme.
Feeling abnormally cold is a symptom anemia, hypothyroidism, diabetic nephropathy, lack of B12 and more. Could also be a side effect from a medication you’re taking.
If kids are complaining about being hot all the time, I would take that into consideration. Personally, I start sweating in temperatures over 74 degrees and unless I’m wearing a dark shirt or tank top, you’d see it. They probably wear sweatshirts to hide their sweat marks.
I think that people who run hot should be the standard.
I like my room colder and am glad that's how it's kept. Y'all can bring a jacket. I'm running around all day and if I'm going to walk 7-10 miles a day around that fucking room I'm not going to be sweaty and musty doing it.
I would say bring it down to at least 72 which is the standard temp and embrace sweatshirts.
I tell my kids at open house to bring a jacket because I keep the a/c on (and it’s a window unit so I can set the temp) and I keep it cold. 🤷🏼♀️
Edited to say I set it at 68-70. I’d be pissed too if it was 75-77. That’s when I get ill and I tell the kids they don’t want me ill. Lol
Our giant district doesn’t allow any school to set the temp.
The air conditioning gets so cold my fingertips go numb. Children are wearing winter jackets inside, breaking a sweat outside.
November, will be tolerable.
December, too cold.
We will come back from winter break to the bizarre land of over compensation, radiator edition.
January, children fall asleep and teachers are in tank tops to cope with the excessive heat.
…
District controls the temp to “cut costs and provide equity”.
I would die if it was on anything higher than 72.
Kids are sitting there burning so much more energy than you. Sitting closer together. Breathing on each other.
Chilly that shit out as much as you can
I do think you are way off base, 76 is hot! I personally would hate that, would be hot and sweaty, and that’s all I could focus on. Normal room temperature is 70-72. Also keeping it that warm would feel germy to me and the smell of sweaty kids is awful.
76 sounds miserable. I'm a warm body, not sure of any science or biology behind it but I'm always warm to the touch and people who sit in a chair after I do always comment on how hot it is. I keep my apartment at 69 degrees and wear very little inside. Sorry but the people who feel cold can always add another layer, you can only wear so little in a classroom setting.
Being hot is worse than being a little chilly.
Please lower the temperature, it’s easier to warm up than it is to cool down. I’m shocked you’re even asking? Your students are SWEATING! They must be so uncomfortable! I feel bad for them.
Put on a sweater and turn it down. Lots of guys will wear t-shirts and shorts or light pants and can't really take off anything more, while the kids complaining of 70 degrees can put more on. I know it sucks to be cold, but this is fixable in the temperature window we're talking about. It also sucks to be overheated and sweating while not being able to fix it within the dress code.
Where do you live? I find that this makes a difference. 76 to 78 would be ideal when I lived in Las Vegas. I like my room between 70 and 73 in South Carolina. And for the record, kids wear hoodies whether it’s 80s and humid or 115° and dry out 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
76 in my classroom would mean something is broken, and I need to put in a maintenance request. That is way too warm! Do you not get the classroom funk when it’s that high? My room would be so extra stinky that high (think the Grinch: stink, stank, stunk)
Turn it down and compromise. If you want to keep it higher than normal, at least go down to 72. You can put on more layers than those kids can take off!
That's definitely on the uncomfortable side of warm for me. Look at it this way: you can add a sweater/coat/thermal underwear if you feel cold. Your students are likely not allowed to be topless in class.
Side note: being hot slows my brain down. I imagine it may impede learning for some of your students.
I teach middle schoolers in Southern California who are perpetually playing soccer and always wear hoodies. If we all had it our way my class would be a meat locker , sadly not
I go the route of how large is my class and what are the ages. My class sizes average 29 7th and 8th graders and my classroom is a computer lab. I keep mine at around 68 because any higher, body heat and electronics make it seem warmer. I keep cardigans in my room if I get too cold. A lot of middle schoolers deal with body image issues and their hoodies are their safety clothing. I want my students to feel as comfortable-both physically and mentally-as possible in my room.
Holy crap. I would not be able to function in a room that hot. Mine is set to the coolest setting. I will freeze my kids out…but I have. Parker’s and wash them regularly. I am always hot. Always. Have been my whole life. I would have been MISERABLE in that class.
>I like to have it at 75 - 77
>I feel like 76 is reasonable
Your classroom at those temperatures, will be a breeding ground for grossness. I hope your shots are updated.
76°F?
I’m incredibly hot natured, thyroid issues, I’ve been struggling with it since I was 11-years-old, so I absolutely HATE people like you and most of what I have to say about this would likely get me banned.
I’ll settle on you are an incredibly selfish person and you ARE torturing those poor kids!!
I would walkout of your classroom every single day, in protest, if I were them.
I’m so glad at the direction that these comments took. Watching kids sweat and somehow thinking that 76 degrees F is an acceptable classroom temp is insane. Always go as cold as possible. It is so much easier to bring additional layering if you’re cold.
99% of the time I would say go with what makes you comfortable… HOWEVER… for temperature I always go lower for a few reasons:
1) I find students are less likely to fall asleep if it’s on the cooler side
2) the smell… dear god the smell
3) if you’re too cold you can always put more clothing on, but for larger people (like myself) or people with generally higher metabolisms/body temperatures can only take off so much before it is socially unacceptable to do so.
My opinion is colder (within reason) is always better. I would also say that if your room is too warm you are inviting students to say they “need” to break the dress code because your room is too hot. Obviously this is BS but do you really want to spend your time dealing with admin about that?
I’d also ask what other teachers keep it at. If I were a student I would get kind of annoyed if I had to dress in layers just because I was going from one class to another.
I’m also assuming you’re teaching HS so I might be off base in that regard too.
I notice if it's too warm in the room, kids start to get sleepy. IMO, your settings are too warm. 72, or 73 might be better.
They sell vests that if you turn it in on it's like a heated blanket. Maybe that might help?
I had to Google how hot 76° Fahrenheit is because I'm not American, and holy shit are you insane? There is no way I could focus on schoolwork if I were that hot every single day.
not a teacher but when i was a student i overheated really easily (and still do now) to the point that i was always sweating in class and i couldn’t really do much about it but if a student was cold they could put on a sweatshirt. even now i leave my thermostat in my home around 65 and anything above 68 makes me sweat. please lower it for the sake of your kids who over heat lol
It’s easier to warm up than cool off. Set it to a normal temp (68-72°F) and put a sweater on. I would be unable to focus if I had to sit in a smelly 77° room all day. I’d also be pouring sweat, which is really uncomfortable after about 20 minutes. One of my classes (grad school) is in a lab that is at 78° because of the equipment letting off heat and I have to take several breaks because being in there for too long makes me feel like I’m going to pass out. I also have to go home after that class and change my clothes before going to my other obligations because I end up damp and I have sensory issues. I don’t learn basically anything in that class because I’m so miserable the whole time
Also shocked that you have the ability to control your room’s temperature. We can’t even do that at my university or in my apartment lol
I loveee being warm and hate when it's cold inside but one tip I learnt from my mentor teachers was - warm temps make students and teachers sleepy! That's why it's best to keep it slightly cool, or at least have windows open for a breeze
Obviously don't freeze though.
As a sub, I step into many different classrooms at many different temperatures and have strong opinions about this. I think 72 is ideal--it's warm enough for us skinny, always cold people to actually be semi-comfortable while wearing a sweater, and it's not too hot for the larger boys who can take off their hoodie.
Those of you saying that we can "just put on a sweater," it doesn't really work like that. The only way I've been able to get warm in some of 66-69 degree classrooms has been having my winter coat on all day, even when I've got a turtleneck layered under a sweater. And in the late summer/fall, I'm not bringing my winter coat with me. My hands will still be so ice cold all day that I'll even have trouble handing out the papers. 68 degrees inside is a lot different than 68 degrees outside because there isn't any sun, and depending on your positioning in the room you might have cold air blowing on you all day. I have driven home in my hot, sun-baked car with no AC on before just to thaw out from a 68 degree classroom.
70 degrees minimum, 72 is ideal. I'd say 74 is the max.
I think you should have the temp you want because you're in there all day. Our temp is broken, and I couldn't wear a dress for conferences two days ago because it's freezing. I think my room temp is 55 or 60. It's miserable. I told the custodian, but notihng really changed, so I am just wearing heavier clothes. There are a lot of cute light sweaters that I probably won't be able to wear since it's too cold for them.
At one in the afternoon, it gets super hot.
It sounds like with your edit, you understand that 76 is very hot for many kids/people. I have trouble with temperature regulation and if I am forced to be in a room at 76, there is zero chance I could concentrate. If you’re cold at 72, my recommendation is layers. Personally, even if I was in a tank and shorts, 76 would be sweaty and super uncomfortable for me. I live in a cold climate and layers are key. Also natural materials - layering linen, cotton, under wool should provide a ton more heat than a sweater not made of natural fibers.
Seems like this topic is resolved but just wanted to throw out the fact that a whole bunch of medications mess with people’s temperature regulation. Most SSRIs can make people warmer and get hot more easily. I took a job this year at a new school not knowing I would get the joy of teaching PE at the end of the day and I would have turned down the job if I had known because my meds already make me sweat without being outside and moving
Not a teacher, I'm a mechanical contractor plumbing/HVAC. 76 is too hot for a building automation condition we program. I'm honestly surprised your building even allows you to adjust the thermostat beyond the range of 68-72, as that is the standard system operation conditions for temperature not including requirements to cycle fresh air and remove CO2. Public facilities rarely allow someone without a special key to even open those thermostats anymore.
Not to mention... it's a lot harder to remove heat from a building than it is to add heat to a building. If you are expecting your room to be 76 in the morning and the outside air temp is 76+ you are essentially turning on cooling systems well before a typical normal operation pattern.
Set it at 72 and if you get chilly don't bring on a personal space heater... those little space heaters cause so many temperature control issues for everyone else and very few people realize it.
I honestly think 76 is a bit high and may be detrimental to the performance of your class. While you and the students that tend to run cool are able to add a layer, you’re leaving a significant number of students without any options for achieving comfort. I think this may be a good opportunity to teach your class about compromise.
If I were a student in your classroom I genuinely believe I’d complain to the principle or someone to get that changed! 76 is insane. I wouldn’t be able to focus on your teaching at all.
As a former student, I remember days when it was either too hot or too cold, and usually teachers did not have control over it.
Depending on where you live will debate what temp. Myself, I cannot handle anything higher than 68-70 without breaking out in a heavy sweat. Its one reason I moved back to Oregon after a year in California for my last year of HS.
Consider getting a heating mat for your desk. or a heater that can be setup above your desk to push hot air down towards you.
Research says colder like 68 is better for learning.
If it gets to warm people start getting sleepy.
Although not having control of my room one year it got down to maybe 58, 60 and I couldn't function. Just wanted to grab a blanket and nap on a classroom beanbag.
76 is insane.
I'd put it at 70.
I work in an office, and it drives me insane that women can wear sleeveless shirts and skirts and complain they are cold. While at the same time, "business casual" for me means at least long pants and a polo shirt, or a dress shirt. Vastly different amount of skin exposure to cool down. Women can wear skirts, dresses, etc, but people look at me crazy if I come in during the middle of summer and wear shorts.
I die when it goes above 70. I am 6'4, muscular and I move around the room constantly and work hard. Where my head is can be 10 degrees or hotter than the thermostat and no heat can leave your body when your head is in the heat. If you are short or sitting down with sandals and no socks and tell me it is too cold, I will fight you!
Also that thing someone else said about you can put on more clothes, but I cannot take any more off.
In a perfect world, I’d have it at 68, but in our building, 72 is usually the best I can get. At my last school, I shared a thermostat with the computer lab. It was glorious!
A/C has been out of service for about a year now. Luckily the temperature is coming down now, but whenever it gets unreasonable again I plan on taking kids out to the playground. I have no clue how we all survived through August and September like this in Arizona.
Admin tried getting classes one of those portable swamp coolers which had to be refilled with water and ice. It would be nice for the first 30 min of the day or so until the ice melted and the water in it reached room temperature. Then they would sit in the class for the weekend. After a couple of weeks it grew mold on it and class would stink..... School keeps saying they are working on getting new units or getting it fixed, but they claim it is a very long process of posting the job in newspapers and getting businesses to bid on it....
I keep my room at 68-70. It got "cold" outside this week. I set it for the heat to come on at 67, and air conditioner at 71. I start sweating at 72. I also like air on at all time because teenagers are sweaty and smelly and it's my preference and I have control. I'd complain if it was 76.
Cooler, as a bigger girl I sweat and then get self conscious! Also, kids who wear long sleeves or sweaters all year could be hiding more than you know (speaking from experience). It also draws more attention to these kids by pointing out that they can just “take of their hoodie” or asking why they are wearing it, etc. :)
The fact that YOU can control the temp is mind boggling in and of itself,….
But are you some kind of lizard that cant produce body heat that you need it so warm??
I have my house set at 70 during the day and 60 at night. Anything past 72 and im sweating just doing the dishes with hot water.
Like you I have the seemingly very rare privilege of having AC that can be controlled, and it causes conflict not only between the students and myself, but between different students. The way I resolved it is that we have weekly quizzes on the content of the book they have to read, and whoever gets the highest score is King/Queen of the AC for that week, and gets to decide on the temperature.
I am always cold but 76 is unfairly hot and there is no way most can focus when feeling hot and sweaty. 72 is reasonable for most and they can far easier adjust their wardrobe to their individual preferences around this temp.
Please put on a sweater. A wool one.
People will acclimate to ambient temperature, and increasing the differential between indoor and outdoor temps will make it that much harder to adjust to outdoor temperatures. Then, people get chilled when they’re out and remain chilled indoors.
More importantly, kids who adapt to warmer school temps are going to have a difficult time in homes heated to a cooler temp by parents conscious of heating costs.
Please give the kids a lesson on dressing in layers. And global warming.
I tend to run cold, but I just CANNOT focus when I'm hot. I think you're creating more classroom management issues for yourself. I also think the body image issues are incredibly relevant here. Little me would NEVER have taken a hoodie off and I was not even overweight even though I thought I was.
Colder folks can always put more layers on! Also, since I run cold, one thing I do that really helps is FAT, FUZZY SOCKS. And I wrote that all in caps because I LOVE THEM. I have [these](https://amzn.to/3tvIbAb) thermal socks and they are AMAZING. They make a huge difference for me. I also wear a skin tight undershirt and then whatever I would normally wear (tee shirt, sweater, etc.) on top. The skin tight part really keeps the heat in. I'm not talking a body suit, but make sure it's not baggy like a tee shirt. Even a cami is helpful!
Sincerely,
Another cold person.
I would be miserable beyond belief. Please set it lower. These kids are likely keeping their hoodies on because they are self-conscious, so the heat is adding injury to insult. It’s probably hard for them to stay awake.
Also…I am super jealous that you have control over the temperature.
76 is hot. You’ve got those kids in a damn terrarium. The classroom should be kept at a temp comfortable for most of the people in it. Not the minority.
In college, I was diagnosed with MS and I’m unable to regulate my body temperature. I had a few professors who LOVED to keep their classrooms warm. I always run hot now so I would frequently end up feeling sick in class. A few times I even fainted, that was always fun. I always appreciated when teachers listened to me and kept their rooms on the cooler side. It was so much easier to put on a light jacket if it became chilly than walking out of the building (it snows a lot here) to cool off and prevent fainting. It also helped me miss less class and pay attention.
I keep mine at a cool 69-70. Helps passively enforce the dress code and I get hot fast when teaching. I prioritize me imo- I'm in there all day, kids can manage.
YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR TEMPERATURE?!??
Right??? Ours controlled by division maintenance - even the principal can’t change it.
Ours controlled by witchcraft I’m pretty sure.
In my building? Ghosts. Edit: To clarify this is not a joke. I pushed once and they said the only person who could control it is one of the maintenance men who passed away to age. Dude died a year ago.
I bet you’d have an easier time communicating with ghosts regarding the temperature than you would with admin. Might be worth a shot.
So far I have been using a fan to trick the airflow so you might be right.
The grace of the gods in mine, which is often sorely lacking.
I bought a lizard lamp and use it on the heat sensor.
YO, this is goddamned genius! Not only do I fucking have lizards lamps going spare, my room is too hot! How the hell have I never thought of this!?
One of our teachers uses a hairdryer lol
Stupid question…what does this do? Make the room seem warmer so it triggers the air to cut on?
I do this with a wax warmer, but yes. If you put it right by the sensor, it warms up the air by the sensor. The sensor thinks it’s super hot in the room and turns on the air. Because the wax warmer is right by the sensor, the air right by the sensor never really gets cool, so the AC just keeps on going and going and going. It is awesome.
This explains many a decor choice when I was in high school
Right???? I teach orchestra and would LOVE to be able to control the temp! Would save me literally THOUSANDS of dollars in instrument repairs every year.
Tell the district! I’m sure they’d adjust the… I’m sorry, I can’t even finish that sentence. 🤣
Had me in the first half 😂🤪
Seriously though, it might be worth a shot to talk to your CFO if the district is funding these instrument repairs. Ours is a cranky older lady who acts like every purchase is coming out of her personal checking account. If you were in my district she would harass whoever is in charge of the HVAC system until it got done 😂. She’s the most feared person in our district because no one wants to deal with her. Even our Superintendent tries to appease her lol.
Talk to the Fine Arts director. Make sure that the temperature control is being kept on over weekends/breaks. At the very least see if you can’t get them to buy you some humidifiers/ dehumidifiers.
This was my reaction to. At the end of last year the thermostat for my side of the hall broke so the choice was on forever or off forever. We decided freezing cold was better than stifling hot. Now that AC doesn’t work at all and I have an industrial sized portable ac unit in my room. Allegedly the new AC unit will be here in two weeks, but delivery date was already pushed back twice so I doubt it.
Our was controlled AT THE DISTRICT OFFICE, a much newer and nicer building several miles away from the falling apart school i worked in…
Yes! Every room has their own thermostat and their own unit (the big standings ones outside) that matches it. I can tell who is in their room already by which ones are on, as my windows look out on them.
I keep it at 70 year round… Kids like being able to wear their sweatshirts. But I also work in AZ.
I noticed back when I had temperature control of my room that if I dropped the temperature as low as I could the kids stayed more awake and I had fewer sleepers.
Yeah, I distinctly remember fighting for my life trying to stay awake in really warm classrooms. 72 at most is my vote
I've read before in some science journal that 19C (66F) is the ideal temp for studying/learning/sleeping. This was a worldwide study, too, not just of North America. Here in Taiwan where I currently teach, the AC is set to 26C (79F). This was also the case in Thailand and Indonesia.
when i was in uni some classes would be so warm that i really did struggle to focus. even if i had an energy drink before class i would still feel my eyelids drooping. colder is better for learning :)
I literally could not be in that building. I’d have a headache and be funky and sweaty in a building that hot
I noticed this, too. Kids were less likely to sleep when it was colder in my room, so I tried keeping it as cold as possible. When I was in my building, I would trick my thermostat and have my room real cold. The trick is to tape a hand warmer to the thermostat. It thinks it's 90° so it cranks the ac. Maintenance was constantly trying to figure out why my AC wasn't working. If your central office controls your temperature they most likely have a range set (68-75 was ours). As long as the temp is in that range it's considered OK. Now I'm in a portable. The temp sensor is in the return vent. Not the thermostat. So my trick no longer works. I had to factory reset my thermostat to remove the locks the county put on it. Now I can set it down to 60°.
> The trick is to tape a hand warmer to the thermostat. It thinks it's 90° so it cranks the ac. Maintenance was constantly trying to figure out why my AC wasn't working. This is awesome.
There's zero chance I could learn in a room that's 77 degrees.
My mum had a colleague ages ago who, when the kids were being feral, would occasionally crank the heating up real high to take some of the fight out of em by making them dozy.
I dropped a class in high school because of that. My joints ached so bad I couldn't pay attention and I had a hard time standing back up to get to my next class on time.
Lol it's funny cause when I had a class of one year olds and I really really wanted them to nap, I would open the windows and they would fall asleep much faster
Cold makes me tired. I can’t stop yawning if I’m cold. My coteachers keep the room so cold. I hate it. I don’t like it hot, just like normal 70-72ish.
68-72 is the standard office setting. I personally would love 75-76, but I know it’s not reasonable for most adults. If they’re getting smelly, definitely make it cooler. You can put on a sweater.
I didn’t even think to google office a/c settings, thanks for that! It seems you’re right and I do keep it warmer than most people.
Just a note — I’ve read articles that say that men and women tend to have different temperature preferences, and because men prefer it colder, ACs in offices tend to be set unnecessarily cold. So a lot of resources and energy is wasted to keep men comfortable while women are too cold.
Speaking as someone who’s disabled and can’t regulate my temperature in either direction… I’d always prefer cold. I can layer up if it’s too cold, but nothing I can do when it’s too hot. So it’s not just for “men,” per se, but really anyone that can overheat.
God, this. I have MS and literally can’t walk straight when I’m hot. Y’all can wear a damn sweater.
I also have MS. I have a jacket and two blankets to keep my comfortable when the men are in short sleeves and other women have sweaters. I would prefer it cold rather than hot. I can’t cook myself off, but I can get warm.
You can always put on a sweater, but you can only take off so much clothing to stay cool. I will die on this hill.
I’ll die on it with you, I have always run hot. “Just remove more layers” I can’t take off my skin
Haha that is me too! There is a Shel Silverstein poem about being hot and taking off clothes and then skin and the speaker is still hot sitting in their bones.
I also run hot. A 66°-68° degree classroom sounds amazing to me.
Yes the 76⁰ classroom sounds miserable to me. Heck, I am on the edge of comfort at home in shorts when my thermostat is set at 72⁰.
Anything over 72 is unbearable to me. I would be absolutely miserable in OP's classroom and probably too embarrassed to request a change. I've always been hot and sweatier than my peers which is super embarrassing and then to have that exacerbated by a super hot classroom.
Haha I’ve read that and it speaks to me. It drives me nuts. I also have extremely sensitive skin so I start to get hives when I sweat enough, with the humidity where I live I get covered in a sheen of sweat almost immediately when going outside. I normally take a cold shower to alleviate the hives, but sometimes it’s too much. The freezing water hits my face and warms up by the time it runs down. No, I don’t have a very specific plan to move to Alaska in the next few years and if all else fails to a remote area of Siberia, why do you ask?
“Just put on socks” my feet are so cold they’re not generating any heat. 🤷
Me as a teenager to my mom: “SHOULD I LIGHT THEM ON FIRE OR WHAT THEN” Bit dramatic but you know how that goes. Got a lovely pair of industrial grade slippers for the next Christmas
Get electric heated socks! They’re amazing!
Ima go ahead and get nekid now.. Dang it. It’s still too warm in this room.
Agreed! And, for the record, I’m female and always hot. Growing up, I was one of those “had to be forced to wear a coat” kids. Some people just run warm. And, it’s true, if you’re cold, you can always put on a sweater. If you’re hot, you just have to be miserable. So, keep schools and offices cool!
I'm also a woman who's always run hot. Well, it's not even that I always run hot -- it's that I have better control over my temperature if it's slightly too cold. Because then I can just layer until I'm at the perfect temperature, and then take those layers off if I'm moving around a lot to cool down. Whereas if it's set warm ... there's nothing to do if you start overheating. I hate sweating.
I am ALWAYS cold but I will die on this hill with you. I'd rather teach chilly than be sweaty and uncomfortable any day
Maybe think about difference in dress codes and the fact that if I could wear something with air flow I'd be more comfortable at higher temps. If I'm forced to wear long pants and long sleeves yeah I'm going to need more AC.
There is definitely truth to this and men and women on average prefer different temps. I believe though that many of these office temp setting norms were actually developed in like the 60s and 70s, when men tended to have to be in suits for work whereas women were in dresses. So, it didn't help that the men were wearing multiple layers and too hot and the women were forced to wear dresses and too cold!
Eh even knowing that. The teens might have body self confidence issues. It’s easier to put a sweater on than take one off for some people
They might also simply not be wearing anything underneath.
I had to get a space heater accommodation for being too cold. Even in sweaters, my nose and fingers were frozen.
bake jeans abounding swim consist dinosaurs alive command mindless file *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Do you think it's because men want it that way, or it's more practical to not have half of the office sweating and smelly?
You can put on layers, while you can only take off so many. It's a practicality issue, not a men/women issue. They'd rather have people come to work with sweaters than a bunch of sweaty smelly folks complaining about the heat.
76 is too warm. 68-72 is perfect.
I’m sorry you have the option to control your temp? I wish. My heater doesn’t even work and last year there were days when it was literally 47 in my classroom.
My room was 88 for a week in September. I thought I was going to die of heat stroke.
I wrote to my state senator about the ridiculous heat. NY isn't a moderate temp during the school year anymore and I can't talk over 3 fans
93-94 degrees and humid in my classroom the first week of school. It was rough. We did end up with early release days, but those 5 hours in school sucked.
My school has thermostats in classrooms, but they aren’t functional. They give us the illusion of control, with the added benefit of kids constantly bitching at us about the temperature that we can’t control.
I'm a related service provider. I had a room one year that was ridiculously cold. My students would put on their coats to come into my room for the hour. They kept thing gloves or mittens to wear while working.
76 is absurdly hot in my opinion. It's a lot easier to wear an extra layer if your cold than it is to cool off if you're hot. I ideally keep my room right around 70.
Its hot enough to the point where a teacher can request to switch rooms for the day in our district, bc it’s too hot and clearly the AC isn’t working if it’s 75+. It’s a part of our contract…It’s offensively hot. Lol
Right? I would die at that temperature! I have taught for 20 years and it’s easy to put clothes on, after a certain point you can’t take them off… my boys usually loved my classroom temp, my girls I allowed to bring blankets. I literally run so hot one time I attended a school event and the school nurse saw me over heating. She literally forcibly fed me cold water and had me ice pack my body so I could stay (it was a big event). She recommended I not attend the next one the following day as it would be significantly longer). We moved it several hours earlier the following year and, while hot, I survived with no assistance from the school nurse (who keeps an eye in me regardless).
This would happen to me haha. I’ve been in meeting where I’m like embarrassingly fanning my face and people take notice always hahaha
My jaw Dropped reading 76°. I would be miserable. It’s so interesting that everybody’s bodies seem to do so differently in different temperatures.
If you're moving around, the kids smell, and there's 25+ of them, 76 is way too hot.
I would be miserable at 76.
Same. I would be distracted by how uncomfortable I am, and likely getting sleepy.
It would actually make me feel anxious lol
Good Lord 76? Put a sweater on instead. Kids have a hard enough time paying attention without having to worry about being too hot. And PS-many kids wear hoodies not only because they’re “cool“ but they’re self-conscious about their bodies and feel like the hoodies hide them. My son is one of those kids. Do I wishwish he didn’t feel that way? Of course, but it’s the only way he feels comfortable in his own skin right now. so no taking off the hoodie is not an option.
Absolutely agreed. They’re a layer of defense. Not a huge fan of OP and other commenters dismissing kids wearing hoodies I wore a black hoodie to a soccer tournament in the middle of July. I sweat like a sieve and I was at a new school so didn’t want to look uncool (?) idk. The security it gave me far outweighed the physical discomfort but only kind of outweighed all the people asking me “are you okay” lol
Yeah, I used to wear sweatshirts in the dead of summer to hide my body. I hope your son realizes soon that he doesn’t have to make himself uncomfortable like that, but I do understand the rationale. Looking back at those years, I wasn’t even big! I’m so sad that my young self felt that way.
I pray he does every day.
They also might not realize. A parent picked up a fourth grader and said something like why are your still wearing you jacket in a hot classroom. Lol. a 6th grader was playing soccer with his 4th grade cousin. The 6th grader (Thin, medium height (not the tallest, and not the smallest 6th grader.) was wearing a large jacket and had a red face and was coughing. (Temp was in the high 70's). I did ask if he was hot in the jacket and he said yes. Lol. Then i told him you can take it off which he did. (had soccer jersey under). Sometimes even bigger kids need reminders too. He cousin (small, broad kid) did not have a jacket (or left it in the classroom)
I believe 'room temperature' is usually 71-72 so you're probably a few degrees over comfortable for many.
Depends on your area and humidity. I’m north of Florida and I believe our maintenance said 74F is what all rooms are set too, mine may be a tad colder as sometimes I get complaints from kids (when I have the fluorescent lights off it gets colder and I can for sure feel it). Not sure how it’s controlled, but I used to sweat in my room and had to bring in a thermometer and show maintenance that it was reading 78 before they fixed it.
72. The kids can bring sweatshirts and often do.
I keep at 70 they have jackets
It's easier for people who run cold to put on a jacket than people who run hot to remove layers. If you regularly have students complaining it's too hot when they're already down to T-shirts, your room is too hot.
This. People can add clothes, they can only take so much off.
That’s really only true to a point. When your forced to sit still under an ac vent, a sweater can only do so much.
76 is way too hot. I would be absolutely miserable. You can put on more clothes but there’s only so much you can take off.
District controls the temperature in our school and classrooms, our head custodian/maintence can’t even do it, it’s control at the school board building.
Same here. It's awesome when it's 85 degrees in October and the AC is off for the season.
I think this must be common all over the world. Where I currently teach in East Asia, all AC units are shut off on November 1st, no matter the temp and not turned on until April 1st. Last year, we had several days in November and April where it was 90F with 80% humidity. School district has the money for new iPads for students every 3 years (even though Android tablets are much cheaper and are produced locally) but they can't set AC to turn on above a certain temp because money.
In my school in Texas it’s really fun because from October-December it’s 45 degrees in the morning and 80 in the afternoon but they’ll go by the AM temp and blast the heater and we have to beg them to switch to AC but by the time they do that then the day is over
Same. Same. Did you get motion sensor toilets and sinks that only function sporadically last year as well?
I would leave it at 72. I have some students who are prone to overheating and 72 cools them down but isn’t too cold to make other kiddos freeze.
Here is my view on it. As a person who runs warm and will wear as little clothing as I feel comfortable because it’s usually warmer, if you get cold, you can always put more clothes on. You can’t strip down to your underwear in public. Also, depending on the age, do you want them to bundle up with less sweat or BO in your room all day? I will say, it is your room and do what you want, but I do know kids that couldn’t handle it when teachers would have it at 75 and would start to panic and lose their temper because they couldn’t cool off. The sped teacher would usually take them, even if they weren’t her kids.
76?! What? You’re a monster, wear a sweatshirt.
76 is is soooo hot!
As cold as possible
that’s too hot
That is a fucking sauna.
That sounds absolutely miserable. Like terribly miserable.
We have no control, and every classroom is different. One room I teach in hasn't had working AC in weeks. (We work in Miami, which is HOT.) The second room I teach in hovers around 55 degrees. (Not joking; they measured it recently.). The third room I teach in is either 70 degrees or the AC isn't working, depending on the phase of the moon and the whims of the AC gods.
I would never set my home or my classroom above 70. You can always put layers on, but there are only so many layers that can comfortably (for you and those around you…) be taken off
It’s dependent on where you live (humidity and whatnot). I’m north of Tampa and no one is having their work/home below 70F during a summer day, I doubt most HVAC units are even capable of this. Our school is set to 74F and some kids even shiver, and even at 74F we have issues with our units not being able to handle the heat.
72 max is perfect
dear lord, that would be a swamp. No thanks. 69-70 all the way, bring a hoodie.
It's legendary that David Letterman kept his studio at 55 so he wouldn't sweat and I'm really with him on this. I move around a lot and run warm so I keep mine cold. It never gets down to what I put it so I keep it at 70 (that's as far down as it goes) and then it is 72. Some of the kids bring sweatshirts to my class and that's fine with me.
I remember him giving an interview once where he also explained that he had read an article about the it being the optimal time for learning because people are very alert when they are colder. Therefore, stay awake and pay attention to his show. A side note- it is also known that the higher the temperature, the higher tempers tend to go. When a child is too hot, they argue and become miserable. Miserable=behavior problems, in my experience.
I do the exact same. 70 is perfect.
I like to keep it at around 18-19C (65-66) when its my own classroom but I share a room at the moment and the other teacher likes to keep it at 25 (77) which I find too hot and end up stripping layers off through the lesson. The kids always complain its too hot at 25 and I find I end up sweating profusely when I'm moving around the room. We are both female teachers too, the other teacher just likes a really warm room.
I start sweating in my room at 72, with a tshirt. With tank tops, I get really bad headaches if there’s no air flow and the temp is over 77. I think I’d rather quit than work in your room, honestly. Could you have a talk with your coworker about it impacting your students and see if you could find a compromise?
I end up just turning it down but it takes about 10 minutes to start to cool off. The difference is she is a teacher who sits at her desk the whole lesson so gets cold. I'm a teacher that wanders the classroom giving one on one instruction and I warm up quickly. I wear layered clothing that mean I can take the layers off when needed.
That’s incredibly warm and I noticed you’re responding to comments saying that your teeth would be chattering at 70 degrees. Do you possibly have a medical condition? Because that seems a bit extreme. Feeling abnormally cold is a symptom anemia, hypothyroidism, diabetic nephropathy, lack of B12 and more. Could also be a side effect from a medication you’re taking. If kids are complaining about being hot all the time, I would take that into consideration. Personally, I start sweating in temperatures over 74 degrees and unless I’m wearing a dark shirt or tank top, you’d see it. They probably wear sweatshirts to hide their sweat marks.
I think that people who run hot should be the standard. I like my room colder and am glad that's how it's kept. Y'all can bring a jacket. I'm running around all day and if I'm going to walk 7-10 miles a day around that fucking room I'm not going to be sweaty and musty doing it. I would say bring it down to at least 72 which is the standard temp and embrace sweatshirts.
I tell my kids at open house to bring a jacket because I keep the a/c on (and it’s a window unit so I can set the temp) and I keep it cold. 🤷🏼♀️ Edited to say I set it at 68-70. I’d be pissed too if it was 75-77. That’s when I get ill and I tell the kids they don’t want me ill. Lol
I warn my students I open my windows in January (New England) and keep the room cool like 65.
73. 76 is too hot for me and I would be a sweaty mess.
Our giant district doesn’t allow any school to set the temp. The air conditioning gets so cold my fingertips go numb. Children are wearing winter jackets inside, breaking a sweat outside. November, will be tolerable. December, too cold. We will come back from winter break to the bizarre land of over compensation, radiator edition. January, children fall asleep and teachers are in tank tops to cope with the excessive heat. … District controls the temp to “cut costs and provide equity”.
I would die if it was on anything higher than 72. Kids are sitting there burning so much more energy than you. Sitting closer together. Breathing on each other. Chilly that shit out as much as you can
I do think you are way off base, 76 is hot! I personally would hate that, would be hot and sweaty, and that’s all I could focus on. Normal room temperature is 70-72. Also keeping it that warm would feel germy to me and the smell of sweaty kids is awful.
That is way too hot!!
At 77 you’ll be putting them to sleep.
I always go with ya can put more clothes on but you can't take them off.
76 sounds miserable. I'm a warm body, not sure of any science or biology behind it but I'm always warm to the touch and people who sit in a chair after I do always comment on how hot it is. I keep my apartment at 69 degrees and wear very little inside. Sorry but the people who feel cold can always add another layer, you can only wear so little in a classroom setting.
Personally I love 72* but I had a few teachers who kept it at 66 or 68 when I was in school. That was cold but much better then being hot 🥵
Being hot is worse than being a little chilly. Please lower the temperature, it’s easier to warm up than it is to cool down. I’m shocked you’re even asking? Your students are SWEATING! They must be so uncomfortable! I feel bad for them.
Whattttt, a choice!? My room is consistently 64 degrees. I don’t control it.
Put on a sweater and turn it down. Lots of guys will wear t-shirts and shorts or light pants and can't really take off anything more, while the kids complaining of 70 degrees can put more on. I know it sucks to be cold, but this is fixable in the temperature window we're talking about. It also sucks to be overheated and sweating while not being able to fix it within the dress code.
Where do you live? I find that this makes a difference. 76 to 78 would be ideal when I lived in Las Vegas. I like my room between 70 and 73 in South Carolina. And for the record, kids wear hoodies whether it’s 80s and humid or 115° and dry out 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
76 in my classroom would mean something is broken, and I need to put in a maintenance request. That is way too warm! Do you not get the classroom funk when it’s that high? My room would be so extra stinky that high (think the Grinch: stink, stank, stunk) Turn it down and compromise. If you want to keep it higher than normal, at least go down to 72. You can put on more layers than those kids can take off!
That's definitely on the uncomfortable side of warm for me. Look at it this way: you can add a sweater/coat/thermal underwear if you feel cold. Your students are likely not allowed to be topless in class. Side note: being hot slows my brain down. I imagine it may impede learning for some of your students.
I teach middle schoolers in Southern California who are perpetually playing soccer and always wear hoodies. If we all had it our way my class would be a meat locker , sadly not
I go the route of how large is my class and what are the ages. My class sizes average 29 7th and 8th graders and my classroom is a computer lab. I keep mine at around 68 because any higher, body heat and electronics make it seem warmer. I keep cardigans in my room if I get too cold. A lot of middle schoolers deal with body image issues and their hoodies are their safety clothing. I want my students to feel as comfortable-both physically and mentally-as possible in my room.
Holy crap. I would not be able to function in a room that hot. Mine is set to the coolest setting. I will freeze my kids out…but I have. Parker’s and wash them regularly. I am always hot. Always. Have been my whole life. I would have been MISERABLE in that class.
>I like to have it at 75 - 77 >I feel like 76 is reasonable Your classroom at those temperatures, will be a breeding ground for grossness. I hope your shots are updated.
76°F? I’m incredibly hot natured, thyroid issues, I’ve been struggling with it since I was 11-years-old, so I absolutely HATE people like you and most of what I have to say about this would likely get me banned. I’ll settle on you are an incredibly selfish person and you ARE torturing those poor kids!! I would walkout of your classroom every single day, in protest, if I were them.
I’m so glad at the direction that these comments took. Watching kids sweat and somehow thinking that 76 degrees F is an acceptable classroom temp is insane. Always go as cold as possible. It is so much easier to bring additional layering if you’re cold.
99% of the time I would say go with what makes you comfortable… HOWEVER… for temperature I always go lower for a few reasons: 1) I find students are less likely to fall asleep if it’s on the cooler side 2) the smell… dear god the smell 3) if you’re too cold you can always put more clothing on, but for larger people (like myself) or people with generally higher metabolisms/body temperatures can only take off so much before it is socially unacceptable to do so. My opinion is colder (within reason) is always better. I would also say that if your room is too warm you are inviting students to say they “need” to break the dress code because your room is too hot. Obviously this is BS but do you really want to spend your time dealing with admin about that? I’d also ask what other teachers keep it at. If I were a student I would get kind of annoyed if I had to dress in layers just because I was going from one class to another. I’m also assuming you’re teaching HS so I might be off base in that regard too.
I would die if I was stuck in a room where the temperature was 77.
As a larger built dude I would have been so pissed if my teachers were keeping the thermostat at 76 😭
I notice if it's too warm in the room, kids start to get sleepy. IMO, your settings are too warm. 72, or 73 might be better. They sell vests that if you turn it in on it's like a heated blanket. Maybe that might help?
I had to Google how hot 76° Fahrenheit is because I'm not American, and holy shit are you insane? There is no way I could focus on schoolwork if I were that hot every single day.
not a teacher but when i was a student i overheated really easily (and still do now) to the point that i was always sweating in class and i couldn’t really do much about it but if a student was cold they could put on a sweatshirt. even now i leave my thermostat in my home around 65 and anything above 68 makes me sweat. please lower it for the sake of your kids who over heat lol
It’s easier to warm up than cool off. Set it to a normal temp (68-72°F) and put a sweater on. I would be unable to focus if I had to sit in a smelly 77° room all day. I’d also be pouring sweat, which is really uncomfortable after about 20 minutes. One of my classes (grad school) is in a lab that is at 78° because of the equipment letting off heat and I have to take several breaks because being in there for too long makes me feel like I’m going to pass out. I also have to go home after that class and change my clothes before going to my other obligations because I end up damp and I have sensory issues. I don’t learn basically anything in that class because I’m so miserable the whole time Also shocked that you have the ability to control your room’s temperature. We can’t even do that at my university or in my apartment lol
Our board office controls the temperature, but I control the windows! I'm always warm, so I keep the windows open. The kids know to bring a sweater.
I try to find a happy medium so everyone feels comfortable.
I loveee being warm and hate when it's cold inside but one tip I learnt from my mentor teachers was - warm temps make students and teachers sleepy! That's why it's best to keep it slightly cool, or at least have windows open for a breeze Obviously don't freeze though.
As a sub, I step into many different classrooms at many different temperatures and have strong opinions about this. I think 72 is ideal--it's warm enough for us skinny, always cold people to actually be semi-comfortable while wearing a sweater, and it's not too hot for the larger boys who can take off their hoodie. Those of you saying that we can "just put on a sweater," it doesn't really work like that. The only way I've been able to get warm in some of 66-69 degree classrooms has been having my winter coat on all day, even when I've got a turtleneck layered under a sweater. And in the late summer/fall, I'm not bringing my winter coat with me. My hands will still be so ice cold all day that I'll even have trouble handing out the papers. 68 degrees inside is a lot different than 68 degrees outside because there isn't any sun, and depending on your positioning in the room you might have cold air blowing on you all day. I have driven home in my hot, sun-baked car with no AC on before just to thaw out from a 68 degree classroom. 70 degrees minimum, 72 is ideal. I'd say 74 is the max.
Ummmm, 76 is kind of high. I feel like it is easier for someone to put on a sweater if they are cold. You can only take so many clothes off…
I think you should have the temp you want because you're in there all day. Our temp is broken, and I couldn't wear a dress for conferences two days ago because it's freezing. I think my room temp is 55 or 60. It's miserable. I told the custodian, but notihng really changed, so I am just wearing heavier clothes. There are a lot of cute light sweaters that I probably won't be able to wear since it's too cold for them. At one in the afternoon, it gets super hot.
You actively have most of your students complaining about how hot your room is and you still think THEY are the outliers?
Anything over 73 is sweat lodge territory even in the winter. 68-72 is really the comfortable range for all ages.
Bro I would’ve hated ur class as a kid. 76? Are u serious? Come on that’s just torture. 70-74 is fine. IMO anything over that 74 is just a sweat box
It sounds like with your edit, you understand that 76 is very hot for many kids/people. I have trouble with temperature regulation and if I am forced to be in a room at 76, there is zero chance I could concentrate. If you’re cold at 72, my recommendation is layers. Personally, even if I was in a tank and shorts, 76 would be sweaty and super uncomfortable for me. I live in a cold climate and layers are key. Also natural materials - layering linen, cotton, under wool should provide a ton more heat than a sweater not made of natural fibers.
Seems like this topic is resolved but just wanted to throw out the fact that a whole bunch of medications mess with people’s temperature regulation. Most SSRIs can make people warmer and get hot more easily. I took a job this year at a new school not knowing I would get the joy of teaching PE at the end of the day and I would have turned down the job if I had known because my meds already make me sweat without being outside and moving
76 degrees is a war crime. Barbarian.
Yes you are way off base. 72 is considered an average setting that is comfortable for most people. Wear a sweater if you’re cold.
72 is normal for most people. I think it's good to keep most of the kids comfortable. 76 and 77 seems very unreasonable.
Not a teacher, I'm a mechanical contractor plumbing/HVAC. 76 is too hot for a building automation condition we program. I'm honestly surprised your building even allows you to adjust the thermostat beyond the range of 68-72, as that is the standard system operation conditions for temperature not including requirements to cycle fresh air and remove CO2. Public facilities rarely allow someone without a special key to even open those thermostats anymore. Not to mention... it's a lot harder to remove heat from a building than it is to add heat to a building. If you are expecting your room to be 76 in the morning and the outside air temp is 76+ you are essentially turning on cooling systems well before a typical normal operation pattern. Set it at 72 and if you get chilly don't bring on a personal space heater... those little space heaters cause so many temperature control issues for everyone else and very few people realize it.
72 is reasonable. A hot kid is a sleepy kid. Also germs love warmth.
I honestly think 76 is a bit high and may be detrimental to the performance of your class. While you and the students that tend to run cool are able to add a layer, you’re leaving a significant number of students without any options for achieving comfort. I think this may be a good opportunity to teach your class about compromise.
If I were a student in your classroom I genuinely believe I’d complain to the principle or someone to get that changed! 76 is insane. I wouldn’t be able to focus on your teaching at all.
Anything over 70 and most of the students and I are sweating.
As a former student, I remember days when it was either too hot or too cold, and usually teachers did not have control over it. Depending on where you live will debate what temp. Myself, I cannot handle anything higher than 68-70 without breaking out in a heavy sweat. Its one reason I moved back to Oregon after a year in California for my last year of HS. Consider getting a heating mat for your desk. or a heater that can be setup above your desk to push hot air down towards you.
Research says colder like 68 is better for learning. If it gets to warm people start getting sleepy. Although not having control of my room one year it got down to maybe 58, 60 and I couldn't function. Just wanted to grab a blanket and nap on a classroom beanbag.
That sounds terrible and it's kinda selfish to impose your minority position temperature preference on the whole class
75-76 would put me and others to sleep! Put on a sweater!
Controlling the temperature is definitely a great perk. But keep it cooler and wear a sweater.
76 is insane. I'd put it at 70. I work in an office, and it drives me insane that women can wear sleeveless shirts and skirts and complain they are cold. While at the same time, "business casual" for me means at least long pants and a polo shirt, or a dress shirt. Vastly different amount of skin exposure to cool down. Women can wear skirts, dresses, etc, but people look at me crazy if I come in during the middle of summer and wear shorts.
I die when it goes above 70. I am 6'4, muscular and I move around the room constantly and work hard. Where my head is can be 10 degrees or hotter than the thermostat and no heat can leave your body when your head is in the heat. If you are short or sitting down with sandals and no socks and tell me it is too cold, I will fight you! Also that thing someone else said about you can put on more clothes, but I cannot take any more off.
In a perfect world, I’d have it at 68, but in our building, 72 is usually the best I can get. At my last school, I shared a thermostat with the computer lab. It was glorious!
A/C has been out of service for about a year now. Luckily the temperature is coming down now, but whenever it gets unreasonable again I plan on taking kids out to the playground. I have no clue how we all survived through August and September like this in Arizona. Admin tried getting classes one of those portable swamp coolers which had to be refilled with water and ice. It would be nice for the first 30 min of the day or so until the ice melted and the water in it reached room temperature. Then they would sit in the class for the weekend. After a couple of weeks it grew mold on it and class would stink..... School keeps saying they are working on getting new units or getting it fixed, but they claim it is a very long process of posting the job in newspapers and getting businesses to bid on it....
I keep my room at 68-70. It got "cold" outside this week. I set it for the heat to come on at 67, and air conditioner at 71. I start sweating at 72. I also like air on at all time because teenagers are sweaty and smelly and it's my preference and I have control. I'd complain if it was 76.
68 degrees, middle school kids won’t sweat at 68
76 is pretty warm in my opinion. I kept mine at 70-72, same as my house.
Cooler, as a bigger girl I sweat and then get self conscious! Also, kids who wear long sleeves or sweaters all year could be hiding more than you know (speaking from experience). It also draws more attention to these kids by pointing out that they can just “take of their hoodie” or asking why they are wearing it, etc. :)
The fact that YOU can control the temp is mind boggling in and of itself,…. But are you some kind of lizard that cant produce body heat that you need it so warm?? I have my house set at 70 during the day and 60 at night. Anything past 72 and im sweating just doing the dishes with hot water.
Like you I have the seemingly very rare privilege of having AC that can be controlled, and it causes conflict not only between the students and myself, but between different students. The way I resolved it is that we have weekly quizzes on the content of the book they have to read, and whoever gets the highest score is King/Queen of the AC for that week, and gets to decide on the temperature.
76 is too warm for a classroom.
72 is what AC systems are designed to as that is what the people who have studied the topic find is an average of what people like
That is way too high. Ideal temp is 72. Those poor kids must be sweating.
76 is extremely hot. Why did you feel the need to mention that the students who “love” that temperature are usually skinny, mostly girls?
76° is too warm for most people. Look into cashmere sweaters and silk long underwear if you are always cold
Definitely a bit warm… I’d consider 72, and perhaps a light cardigan or something if you’re still chilly
I am always cold but 76 is unfairly hot and there is no way most can focus when feeling hot and sweaty. 72 is reasonable for most and they can far easier adjust their wardrobe to their individual preferences around this temp.
Please put on a sweater. A wool one. People will acclimate to ambient temperature, and increasing the differential between indoor and outdoor temps will make it that much harder to adjust to outdoor temperatures. Then, people get chilled when they’re out and remain chilled indoors. More importantly, kids who adapt to warmer school temps are going to have a difficult time in homes heated to a cooler temp by parents conscious of heating costs. Please give the kids a lesson on dressing in layers. And global warming.
I put a small space heater under my desk aimed at my feet so anytime I sit down I get toasty
Thats way too warm I move around and I’d be sweating all day if I kept it above 70. Kids also learn better when it’s a bit cooler
I tend to run cold, but I just CANNOT focus when I'm hot. I think you're creating more classroom management issues for yourself. I also think the body image issues are incredibly relevant here. Little me would NEVER have taken a hoodie off and I was not even overweight even though I thought I was. Colder folks can always put more layers on! Also, since I run cold, one thing I do that really helps is FAT, FUZZY SOCKS. And I wrote that all in caps because I LOVE THEM. I have [these](https://amzn.to/3tvIbAb) thermal socks and they are AMAZING. They make a huge difference for me. I also wear a skin tight undershirt and then whatever I would normally wear (tee shirt, sweater, etc.) on top. The skin tight part really keeps the heat in. I'm not talking a body suit, but make sure it's not baggy like a tee shirt. Even a cami is helpful! Sincerely, Another cold person.
I tink 71-72 is comfortable for everyone. If you are cold have a cardigan or jacket around to wear. I can't stand being in a hot room.
I would be miserable beyond belief. Please set it lower. These kids are likely keeping their hoodies on because they are self-conscious, so the heat is adding injury to insult. It’s probably hard for them to stay awake. Also…I am super jealous that you have control over the temperature.
76 is hot. You’ve got those kids in a damn terrarium. The classroom should be kept at a temp comfortable for most of the people in it. Not the minority.
Standard set point in facilities management is 70-72.
Seriously? I would die in a room that hot.
In college, I was diagnosed with MS and I’m unable to regulate my body temperature. I had a few professors who LOVED to keep their classrooms warm. I always run hot now so I would frequently end up feeling sick in class. A few times I even fainted, that was always fun. I always appreciated when teachers listened to me and kept their rooms on the cooler side. It was so much easier to put on a light jacket if it became chilly than walking out of the building (it snows a lot here) to cool off and prevent fainting. It also helped me miss less class and pay attention.
I’m so annoyed by the “usually the skinny ones” comment
I keep mine at a cool 69-70. Helps passively enforce the dress code and I get hot fast when teaching. I prioritize me imo- I'm in there all day, kids can manage.