Tips for Classroom Temperature Management

As temperatures become more extreme, many teachers are facing a very practical question: How can we continue teaching and learning when the classroom is simply too hot or cold to work comfortably?

I have experienced both situations, teaching in classrooms that felt like greenhouses and classrooms at 8–10 degrees Celsius (46–50 Fahrenheit). Neither was ideal, and in both cases we had to make the best of the room we had.

Here are some tips for classroom temperature management to create more comfort in these conditions.

How to Make the Most of Your Classroom

Classroom temperature management is not only about comfort. When students are too hot, they become tired, lose concentration, and sometimes lose patience more quickly. When they are too cold, it can be difficult to write, sit still, or think about anything except warming up. Teachers also face these difficulties and are usually expected to maintain our energy, regulate the classroom, and support everyone while our own bodies are uncomfortable.

Not every school can immediately install air-conditioning, replace windows, or improve the insulation of an old building. However, there are adjustments that teachers can try, using resources already available at school. More expensive equipment, of course, should be provided by the school and not paid for by teachers.

One of my classrooms has windows on three of four walls. Only some of the south-facing windows have adjustable blinds. The light is beautiful, yes, but when the heat arrives, the classroom becomes unbearable.

Our school provides one fan per classroom. It helps, but one fan for an entire class is not enough. I moved it around the room and rearranged the furniture, placing students at bigger group tables so the fan could face as many of them as possible and adapting the space to the conditions of that day.

I also borrowed A2 cardstock from the school art room to cover the windows without blinds. At first, I used yellow cardstock. Later, I discovered some silver, almost mirror-like Christmas cardstock in a cupboard. I placed the silver side facing outside to reflect the sunlight and the white side facing the classroom. It was not a beautiful Pinterest solution, but it helped! After school, I returned the cardstock to the art room so it could still be reused at Christmas.

Timing made a difference, too. Early in the morning, I opened all the windows to refresh the classroom and create as much airflow as possible. At around 11 a.m., before the hottest part of the day, I closed the windows and blocked the sunlight on two walls. It can feel strange to close everything when it is hot, but sometimes an open window only allows more hot air to enter. Trust me, I come from Spain.

On the hottest days when it was still safe to teach, we moved outside. We used picnic tables in the shade or read under a tree. Reading, discussions, collaborative projects, and independent work needed very little adaptation. If outdoor space is not available, look for cooler areas inside the building, such as hallways or rooms with fewer or no windows. We also scheduled the most demanding learning for the cooler morning hours and left creative or more flexible tasks for the afternoon.

Water bottles stayed accessible, and we included regular reminders to drink. Students need these reminders on hot days and, to be honest, on normal days as well. I set discreet alarms on my phone at regular intervals to remind everyone to stop and drink. I also used transitions between activities as natural hydration breaks, like before starting a new lesson, after recess, or when moving to another activity.

During Covid, I taught 25 students on the fifth floor of a school. To maintain ventilation, we kept all the windows and the classroom door open even in November and December.

To keep warm, the students kept their jackets on, and I asked families by email to send a small blanket in their child’s school bag to keep in the classroom. We had radiators, and some desks were closer to them but could not be placed together because of distancing measures. An electric heater provided by the school faced the central front area of the classroom, although it could not warm everyone equally. Fortunately, this was a temporary measure, and we did our best to make the space as comfortable as possible with the resources available to us.

I taught wearing my jacket. On particularly cold days, I also wore a thin woolly hat and kept hand warmers in my pockets. Writing on the board, handling materials, and moving around the room for the full day was not so simple with cold hands.

The blankets became part of our classroom temperature management rather than something students had to request. This small detail mattered: Students could independently regulate their comfort without interrupting the lesson. Movement breaks also helped to bring some warmth back into our bodies.

Being Flexible Works Best

In both hot and cold classrooms, flexibility was the most useful strategy. Could students move to a more comfortable area? Could we change the furniture arrangement or type of activity?

A short well-being check-in can help too. Instead of assuming how students feel, ask them. Some children experience temperature differently, especially students with sensory sensitivities or certain health conditions. One student may be fine while another is already struggling to concentrate.

When one student is struggling with the temperature while others are comfortable, I try to make an individual adjustment rather than changing the conditions for everyone. Could that student move closer to a radiator or farther from direct sunlight? Could they add or remove a layer or work in another nearby space for part of the lesson? Small adjustments can make a significant difference without disrupting learning for the rest of the class. As we affectionately say in a very common Spanish expression, “Cada niño es un mundo” (“Every child is a world of their own”).

Students and teachers need to feel that their physical well-being matters. Sometimes the answer for classroom temperature management is a building renovation and learning to prioritize. Sometimes it is moving the tables, closing the windows at 11 a.m., or taking the learning under a tree with clipboards. Small adaptations cannot replace long-term investment, but they can help us teach a little more comfortably while we wait.