TEACHER:--Thermal energy is disordered energy. Temperature is a measure of this internal, disordered energy. While in ideal gases the disordered energy is all kinetic energy, in solids it is a combination of kinetic and potential energy. If we model the atoms in a solid as being held together by tiny springs, the random kinetic energy of each atom constantly switches between kinetic energy and elastic potential energy.--

J.Ghitis:** What on earth is "disordered energy"? Order and disorder are anthropic concepts, not physical realities. Thermal energy is the microkinetic energy of vibrating atomic outermost electrons.
Temperature is a standardized measurement in "degrees" of the heat intensity of the site examined. Not all a patient's organs have the temperature of his mouth. I can not fathom the meaning of your other phrases. **

T:--How can we heat things up? You can add thermal energy to an object by doing work on the object. If you rub an object, the force of sliding friction does work, and changes ordered kinetic energy into thermal energy. If fuel burns, chemical energy is converted into thermal energy.

JG:** When made to increase their vibrations, the outermost electrons of an object manifest their augmented heat content, which is actually their microkinetic energy, which in turn acts on their neighbor atoms' outermost electrons. One does not "do" work: it is the displacement of an object --even an atom-- by applying force to it, what is called work. Work is what energy does. Thus, energy is kinesis, whether at the atomic or at the multiatomic (molecular, objective) realm. The effect of the force applied as friction is to excite the external electrons, which increase their vibrations, i.e., their microkinesis, which is micromomentum, manifested by what we call heat and measure topically as temperature.
Anything that can burn contains the potential energy that made the thing. This energy is called chemical. When burning, the released energy is dissipated in the form of work, i.e., kinetic energy, whether at the micro level, which we call heat (thermal energy), or at the macro level, as when a piston is pushed by the hot gases released from the burning mixture in the cylinder. There will be also work done on the surrounding air, including sonic waves, and the heated electrons will partially dissipate their increased energy as infrared photons.**