Teacher / Parent Student

Recently Visited Pages (More Info)

School:CREEK VIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Teacher:Celyn Miles

What is the new default and alternative sentences about?

Most Common Questions

What is the new default and alternative sentences about? (top)
The "add your own sentences" feature allows teachers and parents to add or pick alternative sentences. To try it out, just login and either edit or create a new list.

Alternative sentences are useful for words with multiple meanings. Let's assume that a teacher has a word list about climbing which includes "scale." But when the teacher looks at the Default Sentence for scale, the context is weight: "The scale was used to weigh the food.".

The teacher can type in a customized sentence such as: "The climbing teacher taught us to scale the wall." or "The map was not drawn to scale." These sentences are available for immediate use through voice synthesis technology. To learn more, watch the video on Teacher Training.

I've forgotten my username and/or my password. (top)
If you have forgotten your username, you can login using the email address that you’re registered with. If you have forgotten your password, you can generate a new password here. We recommend checking your spam filter to assure you are receiving our emails.

I can't log in. (top)
Chances are you are receiving one of the three messages below:

1. Incorrect or missing login information:

If you do not have the correct login information, please see I've forgotten my username and/or my password.

2. Your registration process is not complete!

If you did not receive an email with a link to confirm your account, you will not be able to log in to your account until you do so. If you missed your confirmation email, please try to login and this will prompt another confirmation to be sent to the email address you registered with.

3. You are unauthorized to access this resource:

If you are receiving this message, you will need to clear your cache.

If you continue to have trouble logging in, please contact us with the following information:

Operating system, browser, and version: Windows or Mac. IE, Firefox, or Safari.
Type of network connection: school network, dial up, cable, or DSL, etc.
Detailed description of the issue.

Why can’t my students find my lists? (top)
One common mistake is that the list was not published. If you would like to confirm that your lists are published, login and select "List Management". At the bottom of your list there will be a box asking to confirm to "Publish this list". If this box is not selected your students will not be able to find your list.

If your list is published and your students are still having a hard time locating it, then your name may have more than two words in the name field. Be sure that your name does not include any spaces or apostrophes. For example: "Mary Ann" does not work in our "find a list" system, but writing your name as "Maryann" would work.

(For Internet Explorer 6 users only - If your lists are not appearing in IE6, go to the page where your lists should appear and while holding down the control button, press on the F5 key (this tells your computer to stop using the old version of the page in your cache and to go get a new one). This should solve the problem.)

I did not receive an email to confirm my account (top)
Your account must be verified by email once you register in order to start saving lists. The verification email is sent immediately after you finish your registration. If you do not receive an email, check your spam filter and send a request to info@SpellingCity.com requesting verification of your newly registered account.

General

What is SpellingCity? (top)
SpellingCity is a new and innovative interactive educational site used to help children of all ages improve their spelling skills and expand their vocabulary. SpellingCity is widely used by teachers and parents to teach students how to spell by creating and saving individual and unique spelling lists. The approach of SpellingCity is to enforce the elements of Spelling through interactive learning.

SpellingCity offers over 41,000 words and sentences. Each of the words is spoken by a "real" human voice to offer the student more clarity. With each created list, a student has the option to: Teach Me, Test Me, or Play A Game.

The "Teach Me" option allows students to reflect on each word of their spelling list while the list and coordinating sentence are being read aloud.

The "Test Me" option allows students to take a test from any spelling list at any time. This test option gives the students the ability to hear just the word or have a sentence read.

The "Play A Game" option allows students to play a variety of learning games with any spelling list. SpellingCity offers learning games such as HangMouse, Word Search, Unscramble, and many more.

How did SpellingCity come about? (top)
SpellingCity is a labor of love by a group of web savvy educationally-minded parents who felt there was a need to create a useful educational site. These aren't parents with a lot of extra time on their hands so we need to keep all the communication on email. Initial design documents were circulated in 2005, programming started in November 2006, and the site went live in January 2007. The future includes thousands of more words, a variety of new games, simplified list saving, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, maybe the capability of saving student records, a comprehensive spelling list/course and so much more. Stay tuned.

What does it cost? (top)
SpellingCity is a free site. We also have a Premium Membership, which, for a small fee, will allow for student-tracking and new premium games.

How do I search for a list? (top)
Select your search criteria, Teacher, Parent, Username, or List Name. If your search criteria is too long, your results will only be one page and the option to see other listings will not be available. If this happens, we suggest narrowing your search. If you are searching for a teacher or parent, include their first and last name in your search field. If you are searching for a list, you need to search by exact list title.

The Find A List page also allows you to choose to search by state. Clicking through state to city to school allows ease to locate a school or teacher associated with a school.

Where can I find sample lists? (top)
Sample lists can be found under "Resources". Sample lists are some of the most popular lists on the site. You can find everything from dolch words to general grade-level words divided by grade, as well as unique lists like state capitals and big numbers.

How do I suggest a word? (top)
If you enter a word that is not in our database, an automated message is sent to us to review the word. The word must fit our current programming capabilities. Approved words then go through a series of steps to make it available to SpellingCity users. This process can take anywhere from one to two months.

What is the criteria for word approval? (top)
SpellingCity seeks to provide a useful program for a wide variety of users. There is a constant underlying question of which words to include. Please understand that since we pay to have sentences written and recorded, there are limits to our resources.

Our source of words to consider including in our system has been the words that users enter for spelling tests on our site. We review the words to see if they are proper American English and if there are regular requests.

SpellingCity only includes one use for each spelling of each word. So there is only one sentence for mayflower (our sentence is about a flower, not a historic ship), Turkey (our sentence is about the country, not the bird), and May (the month, not the verb).

We do include:
- Countries, states, capital cities
- days of the week, months of the year
- all creatures, great and small

We are gradually adding popular requests for:
- Non-capital cities, rivers, mountains or other elements of geography
- Proper nouns in general including people's names except as listed above
- Common phrases such as "mashed potatoes" or "school bus"
- Abbreviations, such as Mrs., St., Dr., etc.

We don't include:
- Profanity

We also have a category of words that are included on the site but which are marked to not appear because they may be awkward in many settings.

Who supports SpellingCity.com? (top)
SpellingCity.com is a labor of love which is supported by sponsors, advertisers, and affiliates. Please consider supporting them:

Time4Writing teaches writing classes with online eight week courses. The courses are taught by licensed teachers. The courses are available from second grade through high school.

Vocabulary.co.il is the fun way to build vocabulary. For more information on learning and homeschooling, try Learning Today and Homeschool Online.

Time4Learning is an online learning service for homeschool or enrichment to be used at home (we don't work with schools). Kids like that it's computer-based, fun and interactive. Parents like the quality curriculum, reasonable cost, and progress reports. Time4Learning includes a math, language arts, science, and social studies program. Time4Learning is helping thousands of children in preschool, elementary, and middle school.

Resources Section (top)
A new resources menu on the top of the page is your gateway to popular spelling lists and articles about the importance of spelling, SpellingCity news, and other recommended resources.

Premium Membership - Teachers/Parents

What is Premium Membership? (top)
Premium Membership allows a teacher, school, school district, or parent to use SpellingCity with value-added features that are not available to the free users. Specifically, With Premium Membership, you get:

1. Automatic student test result record keeping and progress tracking
2. Telephone support
3. The ability for schools to secure their SpellingCity homepage

You can find out more about Premium Membership here.

How do we contact support? (top)
Premium Membership gives you the ability to call SpellingCity to receive customer support by phone. If you did not make note of our number when you received your receipt, you may email us at info@SpellingCity.com. Be sure to type "Premium Member" in the subject field to assure faster service.

Can I change students' names and passwords? (top)
Yes, you go to student lists, click on the students name, and then you can edit it. You must click on save before leaving the page.

Can I substitute one student for another? (top)
Yes, if during the year, you want to make changes in the student roster, you can. Go to the student list, delete the old student, and then add a new student. Note, if you delete a student, the student's records will be lost. Please note, if you delete a spelling list, the student records related to that spelling list will also be irretrievably lost.

My Gradebook is not showing the tests my students just took (top)
The Gradebook displays your lists in the order they are placed within your List Management. To best see the results, you can click on print report or download CSV. Right now, there is a bug that makes it hard to see the results for the whole class at once when you have more than 15 lists. This should be fixed the first week in October.

Can I share unused licenses? (top)
Yes, you can share your extra licenses with a co-worker or friend through your District Options.

Can I make suggestions on improving how student records works? (top)
We appreciate our teachers' feedback and look forward to hearing any ideas on advancements that we may be able to make.

You can chat in the Teacher/Parent Forum, Contact Us or visit us on Facebook or Twitter.

Premium Membership - Students

Where do students login? My students took a test and the Gradebook did not record the results. (top)
Students must be logged in for the Gradebook to record the attempt. Once a student selects a list from their teacher's homepage, a student login will be prompted.

Students should not login in the upper right corner like the teachers and parents. However, if they do they will be directed to a student login area.

Students can login here.

When a student is having trouble logging in from home who should they contact? (top)
Lost student passwords or issues finding a teacher's homepage or lists are between the parents and the teacher. We cannot give out student information or passwords from teacher's accounts.

Can students see their progress? (top)
Students cannot view their progress. The teacher has detailed reports on students and can send home a print out or email to the parent.

Students

Do I need to register? (top)
Students do not need to register. Students can start using SpellingCity by entering a list of words, using a sample list, or selecting a list from their teacher’s homepage.

How do I use SpellingCity? (top)
Students have two ways to get started. First, they can enter their own list or use a sample list to play a game or take a spelling test. Their other choice would be to select the "Find A List" option and search for a list. They have the option to search by teacher or parent name, username or list title. Students do not need to register for SpellingCity.

How do I find my teacher's (or parent's) spelling lists? (top)
To locate a teacher's list, students will need to know at least the teacher's last name and school that the teacher belongs to. Select the "Find A List" option and enter in the teacher's last name. This will bring up a list of teachers. If your teacher has a common name, be sure you are selecting the correct teacher by verifying the school, city, or state.

Students also have the option to locate a list by username or list title. If using the list title option, please be sure that you are entering in the exact list name.

Can I enter my own lists? (top)
Students can enter their own list by simply adding words on the homepage.

How do I take a test? (See our How To Video) (top)
Once you have selected your list to be tested on, select the icon for "Test Me". There are two options to identify the word to be spelled. You can select "Say it" to hear the word or "Sentence" to have the word used in a sentence. Once you have filled in all the blanks with your spelling words, select “Check Me” located at the bottom of your screen to view your results.

How do I play a game? (top)
You can play a game by selecting a "Sample List" or using one of your teacher's lists. You can even choose to enter in your own words and select the "Play A Game" icon. After selecting the "Play A Game" option, you can choose which game you would like to play depending on the amount of words on your list.

How do I make a game full screen size? (top)
We have added the option of full screen mode on the following games: Audio Word Match, Sentence UnScramble, MatchIt, and Alphabetize. To make them full screen size, click the arrow icon in the upper right-hand corner of the game. To return to the regular size, either click the arrow icon in the upper right-hand corner again or press the 'Esc' key.

Full Screen option

How do I save a list? (top)
Students cannot save lists, only registered parents and teachers can.

What does ‘Certificate’ or 'Print Report' mean? (See our How To Video) (top)
After the completion of a test, the test results page will open and give the student the option of "Certificate" or "Print Report". The certificate option will print out an official SpellingCity.com certificate with your name and your test results. The print option will give you a report that includes your spelling words, date and score. It will also show a list of the words which were answered correctly and those that were answered incorrectly.

Will SpellingCity track my progress? (top)
SpellingCity does not track student’s scores unless a teacher or parent is registered as a Premium Member. Students will still be able to print a report or certificate showing the completion of a spelling test.

What are the Recently Visited Pages? (top)
SpellingCity now tracks the most recent teacher page, school page and list that you visited. Just click on the link to go back to that page.

Note: Recently visited pages will indicate last visited teacher, even if the last viewed profile was a parent. To clear your recently visited pages, you will want to clear your browser cache.

Recently Visited Pages

Teachers/Parents

How do I register? (top)
Click the 'Register' link in the upper right-hand corner, and follow the instructions. Once we receive your information, a registration confirmation will be sent to the email you provided. Please verify your email address by clicking the activation link within the email so we can activate your account. You will then be ready to log in to SpellingCity.

How do I find my school? (top)

Newly registered members that register as a teacher must be listed with a school. After selecting I am a teacher (teacher-helper) during your registration process, you have the option to "Find My School". You will not be able to register as a teacher if you do not complete the "Find My School" option.

Your query will begin with selecting the state that your school is located in. Next you will be asked to click on the initial letter of your city's name and then click on your school's city. You will finally be given the option to click on the first letter of your school's name and then select your school.

If you do not see the city or initial letter of your school's name, choose the option "Add my school to this list." Fill in all the requested school information. Missing or incorrect information will not be added.

Note: This is public information do not include home or personal mailing addresses.

Adding a school to a user profile can take over 48 hours. We encourage you to attempt to find your school within our database during this time period. Our American school listings are very extensive and most school's are already listed in our database. You can login to your account and select "Edit Profile" to add your school yourself once you have found it.

How do I use SpellingCity? (top)
Teachers and parents can register which gives them the option to save lists. Once the registration is confirmed, parents and teachers have the option to create lists that students can use.

How do I find out if a word already exists in SpellingCity? (top)
Enter the words into the test on the homepage and click the 'Test Me' button. If the test preloader starts, that means all the words are already in our database. If a screen appears with a word not found and a box to type in a new word, that means those words are not in our database yet, and have been submitted for approval to the SpellingCity word moderator.

How do I read the results of my student's test? (See our How To Video) (top)
The "Print Report" option provides a more detailed overview of a student's spelling tests. A student's report includes the date, number of words correct and incorrect, along with and words that were not attempted.

How do I build links directly to my teacher home page? (top)
To build a link to your SpellingCity teacher home page, log into your account and click the 'select' link. Then copy and paste the URL code onto your class' webpage. Click here for more information.

How do I create a list and use all of the list options? (top)
Create - You must be a registered user and logged in to create a list and save it. Lists are created from within your "List Management" within your Teacher Toolbox.

Publish vs. Non-published - In order for the public to be able to view a list, it must be published.

Edit - To edit your list, login to your account and select the "List Management" option.

Import a List - To import a list, you must be logged in. Once logged in, select the "Find a List" option to look up the list, or teacher, that you wish to import a list from. Once you have located the list, click "Import"
Note: You will only see the "Import" option when you are logged in.

Order - By default, lists are ordered alphabetically. To reposition a list, click on the arrow image to the left of the list and drag the list up or down to its new position.

Make sure that all of the numbers have the same amount of digits, filling in a "0" if needed, so "1" becomes "01" if using two digits or "001" is using three digits.

Delete a List- Users have the option to delete spelling lists through their "List Management" from within their Teacher Toolbox. Place a check mark in the box next to the list that you wish to delete and select "Delete".

Batch Entry - To enter several words at once, click the 'batch entry' link and type in or paste in your batch of words. Make sure the words are either separated by a comma or entered on a new line.

Batch Entry feature

How to's of worksheets (See our How To Video) (top)
Worksheets can only be created from a saved list. Once a list is saved, the "Handwriting Worksheets" option will appear at the top of the list. If you do not see this option, select "My Homepage" from the upper right hand corner, then click on the name of the list you would like to print a worksheet for. From this overview you will see the option to select "Handwriting Worksheets."

After selecting the "Handwriting Worksheets" option, a small box will open. From here, you will have the option to print cursive, D'Nealian or sign. You will also have the option of lower or upper case and font size.

What is the Teacher Toolbox? (top)
SpellingCity members have several options available to them within their "Teacher Toolbox". The teacher toolbox is located in your upper right corner. The options available are:

My Homepage – Shows your school information and your lists.

Edit Profile – Allows you to change information such as name, username, email address, password, and school.

Student Records – Page where you can track your students' records and more (must be Premium Member to use).

Lists Management – Location where lists are created and controlled.

Logout – Logs you out of SpellingCity.

My School's Homepage (top)
On your school's homepage you can find your school's address and school district. It also gives you the list of all associated teachers registered to your school. This allows for a quicker and easier navigation process. Your school's homepage can also help you find other schools in your district. You will see a list located at the bottom of your school's homepage of other schools within your area.

Can I hide my lists? (top)
Marking your saved lists as unpublished will make them unavailable to the "Find A List" function. To do this, log in to your lists management and select edit on the list you would like unpublished. The option to publish or unpublish is located at the bottom of list.

How do I leave a message for my students? (top)
Teachers and parents can now leave messages for their students on their homepage. To leave a message for your students, log in to your account and select "Edit Profile" and you will see the option to enter a message.

How do I link a list to my site or blog? (top)
To link to a list, find the list you want to link to (through the 'Find A List' page or through your homepage), and click on the list name. Copy the web address at the top of the page, and paste it where you want the list's link to appear.

Forum

How do I view the forum? (top)
To view the forum, click the red ‘teachers’ button on the right-side of the homepage, and then click the ‘Forums’ link. If you are not logged in, or a registered user, you are only able to view the forum, but not post on it.

How do I register for the forum? (top)
Click the ‘register’ link at the top of the forum, and fill out the forum form. You will then receive a registration email, where you will need to verify your email address, and then you are ready to log in and post on the forum.

How do I enter a post on the forum? (top)
Click on a forum subject, and then either post to an existing topic or start a new topic. If an existing topic is clicked, click ‘Post Reply’ and type in your reply. To start a new topic, click the ‘New Topic’ button, and type up a message with a subject heading.

How do I sign up for the newsletter? (top)
When you register, you have an option to sign up for our newsletter. If you did not signup for our newsletter and would like to click the “newsletter” link at the bottom of a page, type in your name and email. Select “Yes” under Subscribe and save.

Troubleshooting

I can't register in AOL. What should I do? (top)
SpellingCity is not compatible with the AOL environment. AOL users will need to use an alternative browser. You can do this by logging into your AOL account and then selecting a browser, like Internet Explorer or Firefox, from your Windows options.

The test never stops loading (top)
If the loading screen never stops, close the site, and open it in a different browser. If you are running a dial-up connection, the load time will take longer. If this doesn’t work, you may need to update to the latest version of Flash player. Click here for more information and/or to update your flash.

I can't print my certificate or worksheets (top)
If you are having problems printing our worksheets, you may need to update your Adobe Reader.

I can't pull up all of my lists and I know that I published them (top)
We are constantly running updates and adding new material to SpellingCity. If you are missing any lists or your page seems to have problems loading, try troubleshooting the issue. You can try to refresh the page by selecting the F5 key on your keyboard. You may also want to clear your browser cache. Your cache or browsing history is your computer’s way of tracking the history of sites you have visited online and acts as a memory. Sometimes the computer’s memory gets too full and will discontinue recognizing or differentiating between multiple log-ins and passwords. This means you need to clear your cache/delete the browsing history.

SpellingCity is timing out during a test (top)
This is a common issue that we are looking into fixing. Currently, there is a 15 minute timer per page. If you are on a page for longer than 15 minutes, your session will be timed out. We are hoping to correct this issue soon and appreciate your patience while we do so.

Users are logged in and then instantly logged out (top)
Issue: User is logged in and then logged out after clicking on and link from within the site.

Cause: The user's computer is behind a network which relies on either a Proxy server or Content Filters. Either the Proxy server or Content Filter configuration uses a round robin process between Internet requests which changes the IP address "seen" by SpellingCity.com. When a different IP address comes up for the connection, SpellingCity cannot associate the logged in user with the new IP address. This causes the session information to be re-created for the connection and the user to be logged out (or appear to be logged out).

Note: Different IP addresses for Proxy and content servers are OK, provided they meet the following criteria:
1.. A persistent connection is maintained between the original request and subsequent requests (once a session is created), thus IP addresses are not switched during the users connection to SpellingCity.com.
2.. The IP addresses are unique but only in their last Octet.
1.. 1.1.1.1 and 1.1.1.2 is OK
2.. 1.2.1.1 and 1.2.1.1 is NOT OK
3.. SpellingCity uses the first 3 octets of the incoming IP address to uniquely identify the connection.
Resolution: For now, the IT department or person responsible for the Proxy server or Content Filters will have to configure them in such a way as to allow the SpellingCity.com site to go through the network bypassing the round robin configuration OR configure the servers to maintain a persistent connection with one of the servers for the duration of the SpellingCity connection. The IT department will have to be given the IP address of SpellingCity.com which is 74.200.197.210.

Note: Any changes to the SpellingCity.com IP address (or the addition of new IP addresses) will require any users who are affected by this issue to be notified of the change so they can update their configurations.

I cannot hear the words or sentences (top)

Flash is the base technology that we use for audio and visual effects. Sometimes computers need to update or reinstall the Flash player. If you are unable to hear the lessons and/or are unable to see all graphics, most likely your Flash needs to be updated.

Click here for more information and/or to update your Flash player.

In some school networks, the network is set to block MP3 files. If you can hear the "Get Ready for the Test" audio (which is Flash) but cannot hear the words when you click "say it" on the spelling test (which uses an MP3 file), your network probably has a MP3 block in place. You will need your IT department to mark www.SpellingCity.com as an approved site for MP3 files. This should be very easy for them to do.

How do I make the Spellchecker red line disappear? (See image) (top)

If you are using Safari, you will notice that it flags incorrectly spelled words with a red underline. To do away with this feature, select "Edit", then "Spelling and Grammar" and then uncheck "Check Spelling While Typing".

Recently Visited Pages (More Info)

What is the new default and alternative sentences about?