I’ve been teaching at the same school for my entire career. Each August brings new challenges from learning about my new students, to figuring out who has IEP’s, to learning new rules, and dealing with very important topic: the classroom environment, as in the summer h-e-a-t.

Back in May, I was told, once again, that I would have air in my classroom, along with 80 percent of the building. When I returned for the first day of teacher institute, I realized that my unit was broken. It was broken not for a day or two before the students returned, it was broken for eight days, during which, of course, were the hottest days of the summer. Now, I am not complaining...I’m rather celebrating the fact that eventually, I did get air conditioning and I am not sitting in an office as an administrator. I am also acknowledging the colleagues of mine who are still without air, and maybe for the duration of their entire teaching career.  So I did what any teacher does - you make due and go with the flow to still teach the lesson you planned. With two fans, one in the front and one in the back of the classroom, all eight windows wide open, and diligently keeping the door open despite the fact that school policy states I have to keep it locked and closed at all times when teaching, we would have suffocated if I did. Then, during the 90 + degree days, I would meet my kids in the room, then we would move to the library or the cafeteria, whichever was open, for us to seek refuge. I just kept reminding myself that summer does not last forever, neither does this heat. Like all challenges, teachers champion on to the end, towing the kids behind if they are heat-exhausted for the next lesson.