Don't be silly, you're not dumb for asking questions you don't know the answer to! (I think it's far dumber to not ask a question that you don't know the answer to, but then, I ask a lot of questions, so maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better.)
There are /loads/ of sites out there that teach you the basics of taking your BBT, but the best is probably Fertility Friend, as they have free lessons, answers to all the common questions that people ask, and free software for you to use to start keeping track of your temps.
https://www.fertilityfriend.com/courses/
Another good one is TCOYF (Taking Charge of Your Fertility), which is a book. I haven't read it myself, but a lot of people recommend it.
https://www.tcoyf.com/
The important things though are:
1) You need a proper basal body thermometer that measures to 2 decimal places; you can get cheap digital ones off Amazon.
2) It doesn't matter if you're average out as a hot person or cold one, you'll still have a variation in your BBT at different points in your cycle because of the different hormones that have effects depending on whether you're pre- or post-ovulation. Though I don't know if you'll see it so clearly while taking oral birth control - still, use this month as practice for the technique of taking your temperature, which is important to get right!
3) You need to take your temperature at the same time every day immediately after you wake up - before you stretch, get out of bed, sit up and drink some water, go to the loo... because all off these will put your temperature up quite quickly as your body starts waking up. Literally, your alarm goes off, and the next thing you do after turning it off is put a thermometer in your mouth.
4) The above should also occur after three uninterrupted hours of sleep.
5) You're looking at the overall pattern rather than each individual temperature: before you ovulate your temps as an average are lower because of the effects of oestrogen; after you ovulate your average temps will be higher due to the effects of progesterone, and your body only starts producing progesterone if you've ovulated. This is why BBT charting is so useful - after seeing your temp go up for three days in a row, you've confirmed ovulation has occurred.
Have a look at my ovulation chart to see what I mean about the lower/higher before and after ovulation.
What a lot of women do is combine OPKs with BBT charting. This is because sometimes the OPKs can be positive but the body fails to ovulate as expected; at the same time, if you only use BBT charting then it takes three days to confirm you've ovulated, by which time it's too late to bd! Doing both means you know when you're going to ovulate, and then can confirm you have ovulated.
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