Let's Learn English! Topic: The Classroom! 📒🖊️🖥️ (Lesson Only)

Well, hello, and welcome to this English lesson.

Today we're going to talk about the classroom.

We're going to talk about all of the things

you would see if you walked into a classroom.

Now, I'm pretty sure classrooms are pretty much the

same around the world, but I should say this

lesson will be about the classrooms I'm familiar with.

As you know, I have been a teacher since 1997.

I've been a teacher for a very long time.

It might have actually, I don't know exactly,

because I started halfway through a school year.

So I have spent a lot of time in classrooms.

I probably missed a few things, but I do

have, I think, almost 38, 37 vocabulary words that

you can use when you're talking about a classroom.

So, once again, welcome to this English

lesson about the classroom teacher desk.

Now, you can refer to this a number of ways, and

it was hard for me to find the correct way.

You can say teacher desk.

You can say teacher's desk, and then you

can say teacher's desk with an apostrophe.

I call it a teacher desk.

The simple version for me is to say the teacher desk.

In a classroom, you have a teacher

desk, and it's usually a nicer desk.

It looks more like an office desk,

and it usually has a nice chair.

Sometimes a teacher will have two desks.

If you look here, this teacher actually has two desks.

And this is the area in the

classroom that the teacher works from.

In my classroom, I have a teacher desk.

I actually have a standing desk in my classroom.

I don't like to sit.

And on my teacher desk, I have all of

the things I need in order to teach.

It's where I put my laptop when I come to

class, and I don't have a nice chair like that.

I have a chair, but I

should get a more comfortable chair.

There are days when I do lower

my standing desk and I do sit.

So maybe I should look for a nicer desk at some point.

But a teacher desk might be at the front.

It might be at the back of the classroom.

It's where the teacher will sit and

work, or where the teacher will keep

their things when they're teaching a class.

So you might have guessed what the next slide will be.

Student desk.

So a student desk most often looks like

this in a high school in Canada.

Sometimes the desk and chair will be separate.

This is all connected together.

Students in my school don't

actually like desks like this.

They find that they're quite small.

A long time ago, a student would put

their textbook and their notebook or binder on

their desk, and they had lots of room.

But nowadays, students often have a textbook, a binder,

by the way, I'll talk about a binder later.

And a laptop and desks like

this feel a little bit small.

You can see there's a little place underneath for

students to put things if they need to.

But this is a pretty standard student

desk for my part of the world.

Some of the classrooms at my

school just have tables and chairs.

And depending on what class I'm

teaching, sometimes I prefer this.

Tables and chairs make it easier

for students to work in groups.

It makes it easier if you

look at these tables and chairs.

You can put them together to make bigger tables

or take them apart to make smaller tables.

Or even I would even call these desks.

And I think it looks like

the legs, they might be adjustable.

This is not a picture from my school.

I wish I had tables and chairs like this.

They look very, very cool.

So sometimes students will have desks, sometimes

they will have tables and chairs.

And it depends on the age of the students as well.

I think in an elementary school, or what we

call a grade school in Canada, you might be

more likely to have tables and chairs.

At the front, there might be

a whiteboard or a blackboard.

A whiteboard is probably more common.

Now, my classroom has all whiteboards.

A whiteboard is something you can write

on with different color dry erase markers.

I just call them markers.

And then you can also erase it when you're done.

I prefer a whiteboard because when you use

a chalkboard, you get chalk on your hands,

and then that's just not a nice feeling.

What I don't like about a whiteboard is that

the dry erase markers, they dry out very quickly.

They don't last very long.

Maybe I do too much writing in my class on the board.

But when I use a whiteboard, I find you kind of

have to hold the dry erase marker like this, I think.

So the ink actually flows to the tip.

And I do find that if you use

them every day, they do dry out quickly.

They do run out of ink.

But yes, a whiteboard and dry erase marker.

And we also have what's

called a blackboard or chalkboard.

We do have some of these in

our school still, but not very many.

We've switched over almost exclusively to whiteboards.

And of course, with a blackboard, you will

use chalk in order to write on it.

Now, if you're in a classroom, you would call this

the board, and you would call this the board.

The teacher might say, can you write the

answer to number two on the board?

They might be talking about a whiteboard or blackboard.

So we do just shorten it to say board.

Chalk, I think, is a natural substance.

But I'm sure the chalk we write

with now is probably man made.

But chalk, I think, is a

very soft, porous rock originally.

But yes, chalk.

And then, of course, you can use an

eraser when you're done writing on the board.

You can erase everything and then the next teacher

that comes to the classroom doesn't have to look

at all of the stuff that you wrote.

So interestingly about that.

Usually in Canada, high school teachers

move from room to room.

Sometimes I teach both of my classes in the same room.

But sometimes teachers will teach two classes in

one room, they'll teach another class in a

different room, and then maybe their fourth class

in a completely different room again.

But usually at an elementary school, the teacher

will have the same classroom all day.

Just a little bit of a difference.

So this is something that started appearing

in classrooms probably about 20 years ago.

This is a projector.

Before this type of projector, we

used, let me see here.

This type of projector, an overhead projector.

But a projector is a device

usually that hangs from the ceiling.

In a classroom, you can have them on tables

or desks, but because teachers use them every day,

we usually mount them permanently to the ceiling.

And it's connected either to a

classroom computer or the teacher's laptop.

In my classroom, I have a projector, and I

can connect to the projector wirelessly with my laptop.

And then I can project images or worksheets or lesson

plans onto the screen for students to look at.

So a projector, it uses light to project

basically a computer screen onto a screen.

And so I've used that word a couple of times.

Now, when you have something at the front of

the classroom that you can pull down, and it's

usually all white, we call that a screen.

So you project onto a screen.

Some teachers actually project onto their whiteboards.

Now, my projector, I project onto my whiteboard.

And this is a really cool trick, because if you

project onto the whiteboard, you can actually make notes on

the whiteboard on top of what you're projecting.

So if I project onto my whiteboard the conjugation

of the verb avoir, and if a student goes

up and writes a sample sentence, they can write

it on the whiteboard beside the sample.

So some teachers have a screen.

This is probably the most common.

Some teachers will project onto a

whiteboard, and then we have something

called an interactive whiteboard or Smartboard.

So this is how would you describe this?

The projector is connected to it.

The computer is connected to it, and

you can also digitally write on it.

So it's not the same as a dry erase marker.

When you write on an interactive whiteboard, you

use special pens, and you're actually writing onto

the file that's on your computer.

So, different ways to display things in

the classroom up front, a TV.

A teacher might also have a TV.

In my classroom, I actually am kind of lucky.

I have a projector, and I also have a TV,

and I can connect my laptop wirelessly to the projector

or to the TV, and I can connect to both

at once and show different things on each screen.

The reason I have that is

because I teach split classes.

So I actually teach two classes at the

same time during the same time slot.

In my computer class, I teach business

computing and I teach computer programming.

It's two completely separate classes.

I have five or six students in one class

and about 20 students in the other class.

And so I use one screen, I use the

TV for one class and the projector for another.

So a TV is another way, and then an overhead projector.

This is the older way of doing this.

Some teachers still like to use an overhead projector.

With an overhead projector, whatever you put on

the surface, it has to be transparent.

It will project on the screen.

So you can actually put a

piece of plastic called a transparency.

You can see through it.

It's like glass but made out of plastic.

And then you can write on it and

then it will show up on the screen.

In a classroom, you might also see a bulletin board.

A bulletin board is usually made out of cork or

some sort of soft material that lets you put pins

in it and it allows you to create a display.

This is probably more common in an elementary school.

Well, let me rephrase that.

In an elementary school, teachers often

will make a bulletin board.

Maybe they're learning about summer.

You see, it says Inching into summer.

Maybe they're learning about plants.

And the teacher will make a

bulletin board to help students learn.

In a high school I teach at a high school,

it's more likely that students will do the bulletin board.

They will use it to display their work.

At the end of a graphic design unit, my

students put their work on a bulletin board.

So it's simply a board where you can display things.

My classroom has an intercom that is

basically a speaker on the wall.

And they can call me using the intercom, or

I can call the office using the intercom.

So sometimes during class, all of

sudden A, it'll be like beep.

Excuse me, Bob, can you send Jane down to the office?

And then I'll send a student down to the office.

It's also where the bell system is.

So as class ends, the same speaker that is used

for an intercom is used to make a bell sound

so it chimes at the end of class.

And it can also be used as a PA system.

The people in the office can talk

to the whole school at once.

So they could announce something like, hey, students have

been good today, so we're ending school early.

That never happens, but they could use

it to make an announcement as well.

By the way, PA is short for Public Address system.

It's any system where you have lots of speakers

in order to talk to lots of people.

This is new.

In the last ten or twelve years,

we have access points in our classrooms.

An access point is a spot where it's

connected to the network and so that students

and teachers have WiFi in the classroom.

So most of our classrooms, there's a little

white box somewhere on the wall or ceiling,

and that is the WiFi access point.

Or we would just call it an access point

so that you can connect to the Internet.

The Internet has become pretty important for education.

It would be hard to

teach without an Internet connection.

For me, like, as a teacher, I use a

number of online tools in both my classes.

Certainly it would be hard for me

to teach computer class without an access

point or without access to the Internet.

So there is a clock in most classrooms.

It's the thing that students sometimes don't

like, especially if they're writing a test.

They don't like seeing the clock and

knowing that they're running out of time.

In our school, we have synchronized clocks.

That means every single clock in our

school has the same time on it.

Okay, so we used to have just normal clocks in

our classroom a few years ago, and so the clocks

would all be at a slightly different time.

Now we have a synchronized clock system.

When something is synchronized, it means

everything is at the same spot.

So in my classroom, if it is

ten to two, it's ten to two.

In every other classroom in the

school, we have synchronized clocks.

I really like synchronized clocks.

It's quite nice.

Otherwise, students get out early from one

class, but you're still teaching, and it

just causes a little bit of chaos.

So we do not have this in all of our classrooms.

At my school, my school was built in the late 70s,

so I think 1979 is when they started building it.

And when they built schools back then,

they put in very small windows.

But my school also has a couple of additions.

They've made the school bigger.

There's two times in the history of my school where

they've added on to the school, and each time they

added on, the windows were a little bigger.

The most recent addition to the school has

floor to ceiling windows in one section to

let in a lot of natural light.

It might seem kind of funny, but natural

light is actually very good for learning.

I think a long time ago, they thought

too many windows would be distracting to students.

But I prefer classrooms that have really, really big

windows to let in a lot of natural light.

I just think it is very healthy.

It makes people happier.

It's just nice.

I'm assuming you have the same thing if you have

a job at an office and you have a spot

where you work that has lots of natural light.

It's just very nice.

Classrooms will have bookshelves, or

a bookshelf at the back.

Books are still very important

when it comes to learning.

Even though most students don't necessarily go

to the library and check out books.

Many students read ebooks now, but it's

still nice to have a bookshelf.

I have a bookshelf in my classroom and it has

all kinds of French books on it for my students.

So a bookshelf is a shelf where you keep books.

We have something called cubby holes.

These are cubby holes.

We usually have these in classrooms.

For younger students.

A cubby hole is a little spot where a

student can keep their shoes, maybe their lunch.

Maybe when they come to school, they put

their lunch bag into the cubby hole.

It's just a little place where

they can keep their things.

Sometimes it has their name at the bottom.

And I don't know where the word cubby hole comes from,

but I have fond memories of when I started school.

I had a little cubby hole with my name and

I could put my shoes and my lunch in there.

When I came into school, it was nice

to have a little place that was mine.

On the wall of a classroom, you might see a poster.

You might see lots of posters.

This is the periodic table.

If you went into a science classroom, you would probably

see a poster of the periodic table on the wall.

In my classroom, I have posters because I teach French.

I have posters explaining different verb

tenses on the classroom wall.

If you take an English class, there's probably

posters on the wall telling you how to

conjugate in the present continuous and in the

past tense and in the simple future.

So posters are a very common thing.

Teachers like to display knowledge in a visual form on

the wall, so students see it all the time.

It's definitely going to be a pencil sharpener in

a classroom, especially if it's a math class.

Notice I say math class.

Math is short for mathematics.

If you're learning British English, though, you would

say maths with an S on the end.

We don't say that in Canada.

But math classes often will have a pencil sharpener.

If you're lucky.

They'll have an electric pencil sharpener, but

most of them look like this.

My classroom has one just like this.

Maybe I'll take a picture later today and show you.

And then if you have a class where students

read quite often, especially younger kids, you might have

a beanbag chair or several beanbag chairs so that

students can be comfortable when they read.

You would not necessarily find these in a high school.

Older students would probably love these.

But I think it's better for younger kids.

Older students tend to find other things to do.

You might think this is a good idea and

then they find other things to do with it.

Like throw them at each other

or yeah, do inappropriate things.

So generally good for younger kids can

be problematic with older students as they

find other things to do with them.

And then I do not have plants in

my classroom, but I'm always jealous of teachers

who have plants as well as natural light.

Plants are just a nice way to make

the space more welcoming and to feel nicer.

So I would love, if I'm not a

plant person, I don't remember to water them.

I would love to have lots of natural

light and some plants in my classroom.

I think it would make me happier and

it would make my students happier as well.

Whoa.

I didn't know that was the next slide. Baskets.

Baskets are pretty common in a classroom.

Baskets are used for a wide variety of things.

A teacher might have a basket

where students put their work in.

Maybe students do an assignment, and when they're done, they

need to put it in the basket at the front.

Baskets are just great for organizing things.

I use a basket sometimes when students can't pay attention because

of their phone, and I have them put their phone in

the basket on my desk until the end of class.

I don't take their phone.

I don't confiscate their phone.

When you confiscate something, you

take it away from someone.

I just say, please put your phone in

the basket until the end of class.

It seems like you're having

trouble focusing on your work.

What else would baskets be used for?

Sometimes teachers have work that they're handing

back, and it's just in a basket

and students can come and grab it.

But baskets are just a great

way to organize your classroom.

A laptop.

So let's talk about a few things you will

see that a teacher takes to a classroom.

For me, I take my laptop to my classroom.

We've just decided to call these laptops.

We used to call them notebooks.

We don't call them notebooks anymore.

We call them laptops.

Portable computer.

Maybe if you have an Apple product,

you might simply call it a MacBook.

But a teacher will take their laptop,

which is a portable computer, to class.

They might have a bag or a briefcase.

I don't have a bag or a briefcase.

I basically just take my laptop to class.

I used to have a teacher bag, a nice leather

bag with all kinds of teacher stuff in it.

But most of what I need is on my laptop now.

But some teachers will have a bag, and

in their bag, they might have their laptop.

They might have some student work that they collected

the day before that they have to hand back.

They might have a lesson plan,

notebook, and other kinds of things.

I don't drink coffee, but a lot of

teachers will go to class with a mug.

They'll have their laptop, their teacher

bag, and a mug of coffee.

You can say cup of coffee if you want,

but generally we call this a mug because caffeine,

that's the substance in coffee that makes you alert.

Some teachers require caffeine in order to teach.

And often a teacher will have a lesson planner or

an agenda, or they'll just have a plain notebook.

A lesson planner is a book you can

write in that's designed for a teacher.

It probably has a calendar and other things in it.

I use my computer to do my lesson planning, but a

teacher might have a lesson planner and they'll open it up

to okay, Friday, November 3, 1st, class of the day.

Number one, collect homework.

Number two, teach about the present. Continuous.

Number three, do the worksheet.

They'll have a little plan for the day

of the things they are going to do.

Okay, so that's a teacher, a teacher will probably have

a laptop, a bag, a mug, and a lesson planner.

And maybe other things, pens and pencils and maybe

a scissors and maybe some snacks, I don't know.

But those would be the four main things.

Students will most likely have a

backpack, especially high school students.

Although I think our kids took a backpack from

all the way from grade one to grade twelve.

So this is just a really nice bag that you can have

on your back where you can put all of your things.

I even use a backpack sometimes.

If I go on a field trip with students, which I

did a couple of weeks ago, I take a backpack.

It's just handy, it's easy

to carry, it's very convenient.

They have textbooks, so usually students will

have a textbook for each class.

So at my school, students might

have four or five textbooks.

So usually they'll go to their

locker that's in the hallway.

I'm not talking about lockers today.

They'll keep all of their books in their locker

and they'll just take the books they need for

their morning classes and put them in their backpack

and then go to those classes.

But textbooks are of course books filled

with knowledge on a specific subject.

You can see here at the bottom of

the pile there is a biology textbook.

This will have lots of information about

biology, chemistry, statistics, algebra, et cetera.

So a textbook usually is designed to be

filled with the knowledge students need for the

specific class they're taking so often.

Because in Canada we have grade 910 1112 in high

school you will have a grade nine math textbook.

You'll have a grade eleven biology textbook.

It'll say exactly what grade it is designed for.

Students will often have a binder.

So a binder is just a place to keep paper.

It's usually a three ring binder and you can open and

close the rings in order to put paper into it.

So this is where students will take notes,

they'll do their homework, they'll answer questions.

This is where anytime they need to do work

in a class, they will probably use their binder.

They might also just have a notebook.

Some students will buy a notebook, which is

kind of a book of blank pages.

But it's more common for them to have a binder.

And lately it's also quite common for

them to just use their computer.

They might take notes on their computer,

they might answer questions on their computer.

Let's see here. Pencil case.

So if you're going to have a pencil or a

lot of pencils and pens and pencil sharpeners and erasers

and I think there's a compass up there even and

maybe some whiteout way at the far end there's a

little thing where you can correct your mistakes.

You probably will want a pencil case.

It's pretty common for students to have a

pencil case when they start the school year.

They probably have ten pens and three pencils

by the end of the school year.

Some of them don't have any pens or pencils.

But you will want to keep all of your pens

and pencils in a pencil case so that you don't

want them to just fall into the bottom of your

backpack or you don't want to lose them.

So you will keep them there.

And you might even have a ruler.

I can't see there might be a ruler in that

backpack or in that pencil case in the bottom.

And students these days, depending on where you

are, might have a laptop as well.

It's definitely, I think, pretty much every university

student or college student will have a laptop.

That's very common.

High schools, it might be a little different.

Sometimes senior students will have a laptop.

Students in grade eleven or twelve might have a laptop.

Students in grade nine or ten might not.

You might be at a school

where every student has a laptop.

That's common as well.

At my school, every student has a laptop.

It makes it very nice to teach a French class.

They are required to lease a laptop from the

school, so they rent a laptop from the school.

So when you want to do duolingo or quizlet

or conjugmos or use any online resources in a

French class, they all have a laptop.

Makes it very, very easy to teach.

I like it.

Students might use a highlighter if they're reading something

and there's a particular part they want to remember,

or they want to make sure that if they

study it again, they can find that spot back.

They'll use one of these types

of markers which are called highlighters.

They put out a very bright color.

Usually they're yellow, but sometimes blue or purple.

And you can go over words, but you can still read them.

Like it's not like a black marker

where it would cover up the word.

It simply allows you to indicate something that

you might want to study again later.

You would use a highlighter and then a

classroom will most likely have a file cabinet.

This one should have been earlier in the lesson,

but definitely if you go into any kind of

classroom, there will be a file cabinet.

I'm not sure why the file cabinet in

my room doesn't have papers in it.

So I'm not sure why I have a file cabinet.

My file cabinet has computer chargers and power bars

and extension cords because I teach a computer class.

So if students come to class and their computer

needs to be charged, I have chargers for them.

And then I also have all my

French games in the file cabinet.

I don't have any actual file folders or

paper in my file cabinet, just games.

I have a lot of Scrabble tiles for French

class in there that we use to play games.