"Unbearable": A German Teacher on a Heat Wave With No AC

Hi, friends! Germany has been sweating through a heat wave for days, and in some states summer break isn't far off. Students and teachers alike are at the end of a long school year, and a lot of them are running out of steam… Today, teacher Verena tells us what the heat is like right now and what the last few weeks of school have been like.

Verena, tell us a little about yourself first.

I've been teaching for almost 20 years now. Right now I work at a middle and high school in a small town in Baden-Württemberg.

Why did you choose this career back then? And what turned out to be completely different from what you imagined?

After high school, I had no plan at all. Career counseling and mandatory internships, which are now part of the state curriculum, didn't exist back then. A friend and I went to the employment office and took a test there. The result was that a helping profession would be a good fit for me. That didn't really convince me, though. What I actually had in mind was studying architecture.

My father, who was also a teacher, pointed out how well teaching works with family life. That, plus the familiarity of it (you went to school, so you think you know school), led me to enroll in a teaching program for English and geography.

That was the same combination my favorite teacher in the upper grades of high school had. He used to tell us enthusiastically about the field trips he took during college. And I got those too, from huge housing developments in eastern Germany all the way to Australia. What I didn't get during my college years were internships. So it wasn't until my student teaching, the hands-on training period that follows the degree in Germany, that I stood in front of a class for the first time, heart pounding, after a few hours of observing.

What's completely different from what I imagined is the constant measuring of performance, the constant grading, and the pressure to boil a student's performance down to a single number from 1 to 6 (in Germany, 1 is the best grade and 6 the worst). Talking through grades one-on-one is really important to me.

As a young teacher, I thought it surely couldn't be that hard for students to learn three pages of English vocab and do their geography homework. I only saw my own subjects. It wasn't until I had kids of my own that I understood the workload. They didn't just have English vocab to learn, but Latin vocab, math, and chemistry too. My kids definitely made me a more understanding teacher.

I'm very happy in my job. It's wonderful when students on an exchange trip are proud that they can talk with their host family. Or when a class, after we've talked about fast fashion and the problems that come with it, organizes a clothing swap at school.

We're in the middle of a heat wave right now. What's the situation in your classrooms?

Unbearable! In these temperatures, you can't think straight. The basement rooms are, of course, the hottest ticket in school, and also the coolest. I've even sat in the basement hallway with a class because we couldn't stand it in the classroom. The classrooms vary a lot in how much they heat up. The portable classrooms are the worst. You're grilled by first period.

Summer doesn't exactly come as a surprise… Do you have any precautions in place for the hot season?

We can only dream of air conditioning, and of heat days off, when schools send kids home because it's too hot. Every room has a standing fan in the front and one in the back, and I'd estimate each one cools about four people. The kids sitting right in front of a fan complain about being blasted, and the kids in the next row complain that they get nothing. Some students have little handheld fans.

Our principal got paper cups, and every 45 minutes we're supposed to remind everyone to fill them with water (or their own reusable bottles, of course) and drink up. The classes suggested switching to online learning. We're well equipped for that: every class has tablets, and since the pandemic we've had four set remote days per school year. When there's a transit strike or black ice, classes are always held online too.

How are the kids doing this close to summer break?

For us, it's not really that close yet. In Baden-Württemberg, summer break doesn't start for another five weeks, at the end of July. A lot of tests are still being given, and next week is the oral part of the Abitur, the German university-entrance exam.

Even without a heat wave, everyone is running out of steam before summer break at some point. The last ten days after grades are final drag on. I've noticed that classes would still rather do something than just play games or zone out in front of movies. At our school, besides a field trip, we'll also organize something like a first aid course or a community service placement.

Did this second half of the school year feel short or long to you? Where could you have used a few days off, or would you be in favor of just starting summer break earlier?

The second half of the year always goes by much faster for me. In Baden-Württemberg, we get two weeks off around Pentecost, a spring holiday, and we didn't start the final stretch until the second week of June. During that break, I visited students who were doing an internship in Sweden that we had organized. In Sweden, summer break had already started in mid-June. I think an earlier start to summer break would make a lot more sense for us, too. We don't start the new school year again until mid-September.

What's the biggest challenge for you teachers right now?

It's hard to pick just one. At the top of the list is how different the students in a class are. Often you can't give one assignment to everyone. You have to give different tasks depending on how strong each student is. Mental health problems have also gone up noticeably, especially since the pandemic.

Teenagers' attention spans have gotten a lot shorter in recent years. Another big challenge is dealing with AI. Of course it's super easy for students to upload their assignments to ChatGPT and have it spit out the answers, but that doesn't mean they'll understand anything. So the types of assignments and the way we teach have to change. We show students ways to use AI sensibly and critically.

How and when do you notice that you're running out of energy, too?

When I come home and don't want to see anyone, and even getting together with friends feels like too much.

How will you spend your break?

Cleaning off my desk. A lot has piled up again. Then we have planning days for the new school year, because everything has to be thought through and planned ahead. To unwind, I'm doing a tour of Albania. Trendy destination, I know! But it's been on my list for several years, ever since an Albanian student introduced us to her home country.

And what would you like to say to everyone who claims teachers are on vacation all the time anyway…

You knew what you were signing up for 😉 Teaching has its advantages, especially when it comes to taking care of your own kids. When my kids were little, I could keep my afternoons free, and in exchange I sat at my desk until late at night.

On the other hand, you always take the work home with you. There are the grading and prep, which really do fill every weekend and every break, and then there's the emotional load. Students confide a lot in me, from problems with friends and family all the way to suicidal thoughts.