ENGLISH lesson with BOB THE CANADIAN - Back to School

BOB THE CANADIAN

A BACK TO SCHOOL ENGLISH LESSON:

Do you know what these school items are called in ENGLISH?

In this English lesson I take you to school with me on the day before the start of school to help you review English school vocabulary and English school phrases.
Whether you are learning English as a student, or if you are a parent or teacher, this lesson serves as a great review of basic English school vocabulary and also gives several example phrases where each word is used in context.
I hope you enjoy this English lesson about school and the English classroom! 😉

BOB THE CANADIAN

⌛ Remember: Always watch the video three times. Twice today with English subtitles on, and once tomorrow with the English subtitles off. This will reinforce the English you have learned!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT *

A BACK TO SCHOOL ENGLISH LESSON: do you know what these school items are called in ENGLISH?

Hi, Bob the Canadian here. Welcome to this little English lesson where I'm going to teach you some words and phrases that you'll need to know if you're a student or maybe a parent of a student, or a teacher in a school. Today is actually a holiday here in Ontario, Canada. But I do need to go in to the school today because, there's a few little things I need to get ready, because tomorrow is the first day of school. So, there's your first term in English. The day when school starts each year, is called the first day of school. Why don't you come with me, and we'll do a little English lesson along the way.

So, this time of year is actually called back to school time. The days leading up to the first day of school, and even the first couple of days of school, we refer to that time in the year as back to school time. There are a lot of back to school sales right now, when you go to different stores. People do a lot of back to school shopping right now. So, this time in the year is referred to as back to school time. And sometimes people stylize the word back to school by using the number two, instead of the word to. So, you'll often see in different flyers that different stores have back to school sales, and sometimes they use the number two, instead of the word to. But it's definitely back to school time here in Ontario, Canada.

Well, we're here. Before I go in, though, I do need to put on my mask. Starting tomorrow, teachers on the first day of school, when the students are here, will need to wear a medical-grade disposable mask, but for today, I am allowed to wear a cloth mask. 

Another big difference this year is that, when you enter the building and throughout the day, you have to use hand sanitizer. So, as I'm entering the building right now, I will sanitize my hands. I'll show you in a little bit, there is hand sanitizer in various places throughout the school. There's hand sanitizer in my classroom as well.

The school I work at is a high school. High school students always have a locker where they can keep their things throughout the day. So, this right here is called a locker. Each locker has a lock. This type of lock is called a combination lock. You need to memorize your combination. You need to memorize a series of three numbers so you can open your combination lock.

Inside the locker, students have a place where they can keep things like their backpack. A backpack is a bag that most students buy in order to carry their things back and forth to school. Inside the locker, there's usually some hooks, so they can hang their backpack and also they can hang their jacket or coat, once the weather starts to get a little cooler.

So, this is my classroom. Some of you have seen this room before, some of you have not. Let's take a minute to look at some English words and phrases that you would need to know if you were a student in a classroom. By the way, because I am the only one in this room. I am allowed to take my mask off now. So, I will be doing the rest of the video safely in my classroom by myself with my mask off.

One other thing that's new this year** because of COVID, is we have signage throughout the school. Signage is simply a word that we use to refer to various signs that you will see. This one tells you that you need to practice physical distancing, and this one tells you that you need to wear a mask.

So, you might be wondering, what does a student all take with them to school each day, if they are in a high school in Ontario, Canada? Well, as I said, they will have their backpack. I mentioned this when we were by the locker, I forgot to mention that they will also have a lunch bag because most students will bring a lunch when they go to school. Some do buy their lunch, but most students actually bring their lunch. In their backpack, they will have a pencil case. Sometimes, they will have what's called a math set. I'll show you what's in here later. They will also most likely have a binder and the binder will have dividers. These are called dividers and it will have lined paper. They will also possibly have a small notebook, although this is rare, but some students still will use a notebook, maybe instead of a binder. And they will most likely have a laptop or notebook computer. We usually call this a laptop, although it could be just called a MacBook since it is an Apple computer, but we would call this a laptop, that would be the most common name, laptop. Some students still refer to it as a notebook computer. So, that... (math set clanking) Just drop my math set, I hope I didn't break anything. That would be everything that a student would carry with them throughout the day.

Usually, on the first day of school, students will also receive a textbook for each class they are in and they might receive a workbook for each class they are in. A textbook is a book where students can read and learn new things, and in this math textbook, it gives them work that they need to do, but students do not write in a textbook. A textbook is something that students use to learn things, but they do not write in it. A workbook, on the other hand, is filled with what we would call exercises. A workbook is a book that students might receive in a class and they are allowed to write in it. So, a textbook is a book that you use to learn things, a workbook is a book you are allowed to write in that you use to practice what you have learned.

So, you might be wondering what do students keep in their pencil case and what do they keep in their math set? So, let me just talk about a few of the things that they would carry with them every day. In their pencil case, they will, of course, probably have a pencil. Although even if a student has no pencils in their pencil case, we still call it a pencil case. They will most likely have a highlighter. If they are reading a reading from the teacher and there are important parts, and if they are allowed to, they might highlight some of the important sections. So, they will have a highlighter. They will most likely have markers. Even in high school, sometimes it's nice to be able to do things in color. So, they might use markers or what we sometimes call magic markers. They will for sure have a pen or two. And I have to apologize to all of my viewers in France, this is not a Bic pen, it's a Paper Mate pen, but students will definitely have a pen in their pencil case as well. They might have colored pencils or pencil crayons. We usually call these pencil crayons in Canada and what they are, they are pencils, but they come in different colors. And they will most likely have a sharpener or a pencil sharpener, so that if their pencil or if their pencil crayons get dull, they can sharpen it in the pencil sharpener. They might have an eraser in their pencil case, they might also just have an eraser in their math set.
So, let's look at this side of the table. They will most likely have a compass in their math set. A compass is something that you use in order to draw perfect circles, when you are in math class, perhaps studying geometry. They will have a protractor. A protractor is what you use to measure degrees when you are measuring angles. So, they will most likely have a protractor in their math set. They might have a ruler in their math set, or they might have a ruler in their pencil case. It really depends. But a ruler is something you use for a couple of things. You use it to draw straight lines. So, if you take your pen or pencil, you can use it to draw a straight line. But we also will use the ruler to measure things. In Canada, our rulers always have basically, inches on one side and centimeters on the other side, because for some reason we still use both systems of measurement. Now, there are other things in the math set. I don't know what these are called. I simply called them triangles. I think that's what most students call them as well. But this is basically what students will carry in their pencil case and in their math set as they go through the school year.

So, students would sit in a desk, but the teacher also has a desk and let's look at some of the things you would find on a teacher's desk. So, teachers usually have a few things on their desks to help students with their learning. They usually have a stapler. A stapler is used to staple two pieces of paper together, and it is filled with staples. So, if you need to staple some papers together, you would use a stapler. Teachers usually have some kind of tape on their desk. I don't know why. I just always have two or three different kinds of tape. This is called masking tape and we use it to hang things on the wall. I always have a three-hole punch on my desk so that if students need to put holes in their paper so they can fit it in a binder, they can use the three-hole punch. I also usually have whiteboard markers so that I can write on my white boards. And of course, I also have an eraser so that I can erase my whiteboards. For some reason, teachers have lots of remote controls in their classrooms now. I have a remote control for my TV, for my projector. I actually have speakers and I have a remote control for that as well, and I have an Apple TV. So, I have four remote controls in my classroom. And then, teachers always have a box of Kleenex on their desk. I'm not sure how this is going to work this year with COVID because technically, if you are needing to use a tissue or a Kleenex, as we call it in Canada, you're probably sick and you shouldn't be at school, but in a normal year, we usually have a box of Kleenex or facial tissues on our desk. By the way, some of our classrooms do still have chalkboards in them, and teachers do still use chalk from time to time, but most of our classrooms have whiteboards and we use whiteboard markers.

Well, hey, thank you so much for watching this English lesson about schools. I thought I would open my lunch bag and I would eat my banana now because it's basically lunchtime. I should teach you this word as well. Most students bring a lunch bag and they usually have an ice pack in it to keep their food cool. That's something new. I didn't do that when I was a kid, I just ate warm sandwiches at lunch. That probably wasn't a good idea. But anyways, I thought I would stop, open my lunch bag and have my lunch. Thanks again for watching this short English lesson. It was really fun to show you a little bit more about my school and my classroom, and I hope this little review of some English words and phrases related to school was helpful for you. Have a great day.

* CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio of the video.
** The video was posted on YouTube on September 8, 2020.