Air Conditioning

The college had delayed the start of training for us teachers by a week in part because there was no air conditioning in the building yet (and also because many teachers had still not arrived).  Now that the college did have air conditioning, many of us were wishing it didn't.

There were certain rooms that were worse than others.  I walked into one room and I had a sudden flashback of my days working in restaurants where they had a walk in refrigerator that you would occasionally have to brave to get lemons or something.  In other rooms the noise made it sound like you were standing next to a jet engine.  Some unlucky rooms had both conditions at once.  As the week wore on, more and more rooms became "air conditioning overactive"  it was like the system was slowly waking up, and coming to life with a vengeance.

As teachers, we developed a variety of strategies to handle the cold. We opened the windows, which worked ok in the afternoon when the sun came in, but not so well in the morning when they were in shadow.  We took the class outside at least once every class period, just so we could all warm up.  We dressed in layers and encouraged the girls to do the same.  Still, it just kept getting colder.  The vice principal insisted that this was because we were opening the windows, which caused the central thermostat to register a higher temperature, and therefore kick in more often.  We didn't buy this for two reasons.  One, the reason we were given for the air conditioning not working properly was that they had not yet set up any thermostat, and that it was a centralized system at the moment that could either be off or on and that was it, no middle ground.  They promised that they would come in and instal thermostats soon.  The second reason we didn't buy it was that if there was some centrally located thermostat, it was somewhere in the middle of the building, not in the classrooms, so if we had the windows open, but the door shut to the hallway, the temperature in the hallway, and therefore in the rest of the building wouldn't be affected.  Still, they insisted we keep them, if not completely closed, than open no more than three inches.  After a while, It became a game for us.  The teacher whose room was at the end of the hallway had a lookout, and because she had one of those incredibly loud whistles I've always been jealous of, she would give the signal whistle whenever the vice principal was coming through, and the girls would rush to slide the windows closed.  It wasn't a perfect system, but it usually worked.

  I had a few additional tricks up my sleeve, or sleeves, since by this time I was consistently wearing at least three layers. I wore long underwear, and two sweaters.  I even broke out my winter coat.  We are allowed to take off our Hijab's when teaching, but I would leave it on to keep my ears warm. I instituted "exercise breaks" where we would do jumping jacks or some other activity for a few minutes between activities to try to bring up our body temperatures.    I started planning group work that could take place outside. Eventually,  I started teaching the whole class period outside in this enclosed hexagonal area in the lobby of the administrative building.  It was technically outside, but was also completely enclosed and only open in the ceiling, so we weren't disturbed by other students walking by the way we were in the courtyard.  It had steps and benches the students could use as chairs, and the large windows doubled as dry erase boards so it was easy to carry on the lesson. This worked well for about a day and a half, until the vice principal came around and told me I had to stay in my classroom, and that if I had to go outside for a few minutes, I could have them stand in the courtyard.  She told me they knew there was a problem with the AC and they were going to fix it and I didn't need to camp outside the administrative offices to remind them.  I explained that I wasn't having class there to remind them of anything, I was having it there simply because it was the best solution I had found so far to the cold.  I tried to explain how the enclosed space was ideal because there were no distractions and gave the girls a place to sit, and me a place to write, but she didn't let me finish.  She insisted on marching my students and I back to our classroom (to make sure none of them strayed off to the cafeteria on their way back to class).   The next day, I saw another teacher had stolen my idea and was using the same space.  I would have to warn her on the bus that evening not to let the vice principal catch her in there.

So, back to the meatlocker, the girls and I bundled up and did our best to carry on.  One of the teachers had bought a space heater from the mall, and I decide that this weekend, I would do the same.  And maybe look for some gloves and a beanie cap while I was at it.