Penn Graduate Student Center
Navigating the Classroom
Navigating the Classroom Resources
Get the most out of your teaching experiences!
Penn Resources
Blackboard provides an integrated system of tools for designing course websites, posting course materials, tracking grades, submitting assignments, accessing discussion boards, and more, in order to supplement the classroom experience.
Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) offers resources and workshops to help develop and improve teaching, foster valuable conversations about teaching, and enhance the quality of teaching at Penn. Also offers the CTL Teaching Certificate.
Code of Academic Integrity provides Penn's policies on cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, multiple submission, misrepresentation of academic records, facilitating academic dishonesty, and unfair advantage.
Communication Within the Curriculum (CWiC) provides courses and workshops for students to improve speaking abilities.
Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) provides services to your students with concerns of a personal, emotional, social, or educational nature.
Contact List for recognizing and responding to students in distress.
Courses in Touch provides a tool for course enrollment and grading. Also provides a means of sending "Course Problem Notices" to students should their work become unsatisfactory for any reason.
Critical Writing in the Discipline (CWID) Fellows support faculty of writing-intensive courses in the discipline by handling informal writing assignments, reading drafts, commenting on papers, and meeting with students in conferences.
Graduate/Undergraduate Mentoring Program (GUMP) pairs undergraduate students who are interested in applying to graduate school with current Penn graduate and professional students in order to learn first-hand about preparing for, applying to, and succeeding in graduate school.
International Teaching Assistant Testing and Training provides resources for international graduate and professional students interested in becoming teaching assistants. Also administers the Test of Spoken English and training programs.
Office of Access and Achievement Programs provides support services for your students, including the Tutoring Center, which offers a variety of peer tutoring services.
Office of Student Disability Services provides comprehensive, professional services and programs for your students with disabilities to ensure equal academic opportunities and participation in University-sponsored events.
Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Grad Students
Penn Writing Center offers writing help to Penn students.
Policy on Consensual Sexual Relations Between Faculty/TAs and Students
TA Manual provides a reference tool, organized around tasks you will perform during your teaching career at Penn.
Talk about Teaching and Learning offers a monthly column about teaching written by faculty for faculty.
Weingarten Learning Resources Center offers instruction in academic reading, writing, and study strategies. Also, houses the Office of Student Disability Services.
Online Resources
Chronicle of Higher Education Careers Website provides resources for academic job-seekers, including a search engine, articles, tips, and discussion forums.
National Education Association Online Teaching and Learning Resources provides a useful list of online teaching resources.
University of Florida TA Handbook is a 90+ page TA Handbook that contains information on the TA's role in the classroom, time management, and balancing life as a teacher-scholar.
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Writing Center offers useful handouts and links with writing tips and advice.
Useful Software
Other Online Tutorials offered through the Library
Just for Fun!
A college professor asks Slate's advice columnist, Dear Prudence, "why female students are showing so much skin these days?"
Have some more helpful resource suggestions? Tell the Gnome!
Common Room Summer Hours
Monday - Thursday:
11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Friday: 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sat & Sun: Closed
Friday, August 29: Close at 3:00pm
Monday, September 1: Closed
Common Room Fall Hours
Start Tuesday, September 2
Monday - Thursday:
9:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Friday: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sat & Sun: 12 Noon - 6:00 PM
Graduate Student Center
3615 Locust Walk
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA 19104-6221
215-746-6868
gsc@pobox.upenn.edu