As a middle school mentor, I periodically agree to take on the not-so-coveted job of teaching summer time school. I cherish what I do and I cherish my students, however summer time school means working with teenagers who usually have behavioral problems in a honestly hot classroom. In the past, I have used two or three fans that are running constantly. And some days I have taken the class outside for a lesson, however there are usually too several distractions outside to keep their attention. But this year I decided to look into purchasing my own portable a/c. What I found on some sites was that they are better than a fan, however not much. Other sites claimed that portable a/cs are larger, noisier, more overpriced and use more energy, and unlike a window a/c, all the mechanical parts of a portable a/c are kneeling in the room you’re trying to cool. And it’s debatable how portable they are, because once the hose is linked to the kit in the window, you won’t want to move the unit, which weighs 79 pounds or more. I also read that although portable a/cs have wheels, they don’t move well on carpets or over raised thresholds between rooms. Finally, one website stated that if a portable a/c is the only choice, you still need fans to distribute the cooled air around the room. In the end, it seemed that there were too several strikes against purchasing a portable a/c. The final straw was the price, which would have almost cancelled out the income that I would make from teaching summer time school.