# Project 02: ClassroomStreet Investor Report and Personal Budget

**Unit:** Unit 2, Me, My Goals, My Money (Individual Growth and Life Readiness)
**Topic:** 2.4 ClassroomStreet Investor Challenge (with trading windows continuing into Topic 2.5)
**Runs across:** Lessons 2.14 (launch and first buys), 2.15 (reading the news), 2.16 (diversification), 2.17 (the crisis), 2.18 (recovery and return math), 2.19 (the closing bell, the reveal, and the report), plus ten-minute Round 2 trading windows in Lessons 2.20, 2.21, and 2.22
**Team:** individual portfolios and an individual report; team debriefs in pairs and four-corner groups
**Scored with:** `Rubric 02 - Investor Report and Personal Budget.md` (five criteria, 20 points; the labs and projects category)

## Standards this project assesses

- NYS IGLR 4. Financial Readiness b) Create and follow a budget; e) Determine ways for saving money
- NYS IGLR 2. Goal Setting d) Design, implement, and evaluate a plan to attain a desired goal
- CTE FCL 2. Saving, Investing, and Sharing b) Define "investing" and explain how saving and investing are related; c) Explore different savings and investment tools and methods; f) Apply decision-making skills to saving, investing, and donating decisions
- CTE FCL 3. Protecting and Insuring a) Identify various types of financial risk
- CTE PSI 1. Problem Solving e) Demonstrate personal development of problem-solving skills through practice of these skills in a variety of classroom applications
- CTE PSI 4. Research Applications in CTE b) b. Evaluating the source to determine if the author(s) or publisher can be considered an authoritative source for the desired content
- CTE HSW 6. Stress Management c) Recognize signs of stress and take steps to reduce its impact on overall wellness
- CTE CIR 1. Communication f) Demonstrate personal development of communication skills through practice of these skills in a variety of classroom applications
- NYS FACS Standard 3 (Intermediate), Key Idea: Students will understand and be able to manage personal resources of talent, time, energy, and money and make effective decisions in order to balance their obligations to work, family, and self.; PI: Students understand the resources available to them, make informed decisions about the use of those resources, and know some ways to expand resources.; PI: Students are able to budget their time and money.
- CDOS 3a Universal Foundation Skills: Managing Information; Thinking Skills; Basic Skills
- National FCS 3.0: 2.1.2 Examine how people and families choose among needs and wants.

## The simulation, stated once (teacher facing)

Every lesson in this topic refers back to this paragraph instead of repeating it.

ClassroomStreet.com is Sal's own stock market simulation, built first as "Fortune Street of the Golden Land" and now hosted publicly. Students log in with a class period, a merchant number, and a four-digit PIN that the teacher hands out on a card; no names, emails, or personal data are entered anywhere. Every merchant starts with AQ25,000 in the fictional currency (AQ; Sal's older files say Florins in some places and AQ10,000 in one, and this unit uses AQ25,000 everywhere). Students buy and sell "ventures" that map to real instruments: Sparkstone Mines (SPRK, a big tech stock), Cloudberry Expeditions (CLDB, a startup or IPO stock), The Iron Vault (IRON, corporate bonds), Crown Seal Notes (SEAL, U.S. Treasury bonds), Willowbrook Grove (WLLW, an IRA-style retirement fund), The Honeypot Coffer (HNYP, a high-yield savings account), and Meadowgold Acres (MDOW, a REIT). [Sal: confirm the current asset list; the August 2026 portfolio says the live site has ten ventures, and the Desktop files have these seven.] News "dispatches" tied to each trading window move the prices; there are several trading windows a game day and the teacher advances them by hand from the Command Bridge. A mid-unit crisis crashes the risky ventures (SPRK and CLDB fall 15 to 25 percent a window) while the safe ones hold (SEAL, HNYP), and the market recovers afterward. A leaderboard ranks merchants by total fortune with rank titles from Grand Merchant down to Apprentice. The final day is a reveal that maps every venture to its real instrument. Sal's original 15-day plan ended with a reflection essay scored on a 16-point rubric (participation, analysis and decision making, emotional control, reflection quality); this project keeps those four criteria, adds the revised personal budget as a fifth, and compresses the fifteen days to ten lesson days plus three ten-minute Round 2 windows. Only the trading floor is visible on the public site; the personal budget is done on paper in Lessons 2.9 and 2.19. [Sal: if a budgeting mode exists on the live site, say so and the 2.9 budget and its revision can run inside it.]

Window map used in the lessons (from the 60-window Fortune Street schedule with the crisis at windows 25 to 32; [Sal: confirm against the live site's dispatch schedule]):

| Class day | Lesson | Windows | What the market does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.14 Day 1 | 1 to 2 | Opening prices; first buys |
| 2 | 2.14 Day 2 | 3 to 6 | Calm; small moves |
| 3 | 2.15 Day 1 | 7 to 12 | First real news moves |
| 4 | 2.15 Day 2 | 13 to 18 | More news; one hype dispatch if the teacher sends it |
| 5 | 2.16 | 19 to 24 | Last calm day; prices get jumpy |
| 6 | 2.17 Day 1 | 25 to 28 | The crisis hits; risky ventures crash |
| 7 | 2.17 Day 2 | 29 to 32 | Crisis deepens; the last dispatch hints at recovery |
| 8 | 2.18 | 33 to 40 | Recovery; buying low; rebalancing |
| 9 | 2.19 Day 1 | frozen at 40 | The closing bell; leaderboard; the reveal |
| 10 | 2.19 Day 2 | closed | The Investor Report is written |
| 11 | 2.20 (10 min) | 41 to 47 | Round 2 opens: trading with the reveal in hand |
| 12 | 2.21 (10 min) | 48 to 54 | Round 2 continues; some ventures surge |
| 13 | 2.22 (10 min) | 55 to 60 | Round 2 closes; Round 2 leaderboard |

Before each period, use Jump to Window in the Command Bridge to set the day's opening window so every period sees the same story; advance through the day's windows during the trading window. Turn off auto-advance for the class run. [Sal: the Desktop version shares market state across periods and can auto-advance on system time; confirm the live site's settings.]

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# The project sheet (student version)

Name: ______________________ Date: __________ Period: ______ Merchant number: ______

## The scenario

You are a new merchant on ClassroomStreet with AQ25,000 you did not have yesterday. For ten class days you will buy and sell seven ventures, read the news, live through a crash, and find out on Day 9 what you were really buying. Then you write the Investor Report: what you did, why, what it cost or earned, and what it changed about your own budget.

The leaderboard is real and I will read the top five. The grade is not the leaderboard. The grade is whether you can explain your decisions with numbers, whether you kept your head in the crisis, and whether you took what you learned back to your own money.

## What you turn in

| Deliverable | What it is | When | Rubric criterion |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Investor Journal | Ten entries, one per class day, each with what I did, why, what happened, and my total fortune | Entries 1 to 10 by the end of Lesson 2.19 Day 2 (the three short Round 2 lines follow in Lessons 2.20 to 2.22 as daily work) | 1. Trading participation and journal |
| 2. The decision grid | The five-step decision model applied to sell, hold, or buy on the day the crisis hit, with the look back filled the next day | Lesson 2.17 | 3. Emotional control during the crisis |
| 3. The Return Math handout | Parts A, B, and C complete; your own percent return in Part B | Lesson 2.18 | 4. The report's math and reflection |
| 4. The Investor Report | Seven parts: starting and ending balance; percent return with the formula; three decisions and why, each with a ledger number; what the crisis taught me; one thing I would do differently; the reveal table; the revised personal budget with a savings line | Lesson 2.19 Day 2 | 2, 3, 4, and 5 |
| 5. The revised personal budget | Part 7 of the report: your Lesson 2.9 budget with a savings line added or raised, paid first, and two sentences on why | Lesson 2.19 Day 2 | 5. The revised budget |

Your trades are also in the site's ledger, which I can export. Criterion 1 uses that export and your journal together.

## Day by day

| Day | Lesson | What happens | Checkpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.14 Day 1 | Saving vs investing. The risk ladder. Sort the seven Venture Risk Cards. Log in. First buys: at least three ventures, keep at least AQ1,000 cash. | Logged in; three ventures; Entry 1 started |
| 2 | 2.14 Day 2 | Read the portfolio screen and the ledger. Check one trade. Sketch your pie. Trading window. Entry 2. | Ledger check written; Entry 2 complete |
| 3 | 2.15 Day 1 | Supply and demand. News Card and Price Change, Part A. Trading window with predictions. Entry 3. | Six of eight matches; a prediction written |
| 4 | 2.15 Day 2 | Fact vs hype: the three tests. Part B. Trading window. Entry 4. | Six headlines labeled; Entry 4 names a headline ignored |
| 5 | 2.16 | Eggs and baskets. Three Portfolios and a Shock. Rebalance or hold. Entry 5 with your biggest slice. | Handout complete; a rebalance or hold decision written |
| 6 | 2.17 Day 1 | The crisis hits. Stress signs. The decision grid before any trade. Trading window. Entry 6 with feelings. | Grid decision written before the first trade |
| 7 | 2.17 Day 2 | Four corners poll. Two real crashes. Trading window. Entry 7 and the look back row. | Look back names a piece of evidence |
| 8 | 2.18 | Recovery and buying low. Return Math, Parts A to C. Rebalance window. Entry 8 with your percent return. | Part B correct; Entry 8 has two percents |
| 9 | 2.19 Day 1 | The closing bell. The leaderboard. The reveal. Three ledger paths. Entry 9. | Reveal table complete |
| 10 | 2.19 Day 2 | Write the report, parts 1 to 5. Revise the budget, part 7. Peer read. Submit. Entry 10. | Report submitted with journal, grid, and Return Math stapled |
| 11 to 13 | 2.20, 2.21, 2.22 (10 minutes each) | Round 2: the market reopens and you trade knowing what every venture really is. Three short Round 2 lines in the journal. The last window closes on Day 13; the Round 2 standings go up the next class day. | Round 2 lines complete |

## Round 2: trading with the truth

After the reveal, the market runs three more days for ten minutes each inside the career lessons. Same account, same rules, same leaderboard. The one difference is you: you now know that Sparkstone is a tech stock and the Honeypot is a savings account. Round 2 has its own small leaderboard: the last window closes at the reset cue in Lesson 2.22, and the standings go up by merchant number at the start of the next class. It is not on the rubric; the three Round 2 journal lines count as daily work, and nothing in Round 2 changes the report you already handed in. It is your chance to find out whether knowing the truth changes what you do.

## Team debriefs

Your portfolio and your report are yours alone. Three times you work with others:
- **Pairs** for the News Card match (Day 3), the fact or hype sort (Day 4), the Three Portfolios math (Day 5), the Part C comparison (Day 8), and the peer read (Day 10). A partner checks your work; a partner does not trade for you.
- **Four corners** on Day 7: everyone who sold some, sold everything, held, or bought more stands together and says why. Nobody's number is read unless they read it.
- **The class debrief** on Day 9: three merchant paths, by number only, and volunteers.

## Where you get to choose

- **What you buy and when.** Every trade in ten days is yours. The only rules are the Day 1 rules (three ventures, AQ1,000 cash) and the Day 6 rule (a written decision on the grid before you trade in the crisis).
- **Sell, hold, or buy** in the crisis. All three can be right. The grid is where you show me your reason.
- **The three decisions** in your report. Pick the three you can explain best, not the three that look best.
- **How you write the report.** Handwritten on the template, typed, dictated to a partner and checked, or recorded as a voice note with the numbers written on the template. The seven parts are the same in every form.
- **The savings line.** Add one, raise one, or split one into an emergency cushion and a long-term line. Your budget, your number, your reason.

## Supports

- **Journal sentence starters** (the Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish lines are marked [check with a native speaker]):

| English | Turkish | Portuguese | Spanish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Today I bought ___ because ___. | Bugün ___ aldım çünkü ___. | Hoje comprei ___ porque ___. | Hoy compré ___ porque ___. |
| Today I sold ___ because ___. | Bugün ___ sattım çünkü ___. | Hoje vendi ___ porque ___. | Hoy vendí ___ porque ___. |
| I did not trade today because ___. | Bugün alım satım yapmadım çünkü ___. | Hoje não negociei porque ___. | Hoy no hice ninguna operación porque ___. |
| My total fortune is ___. It went up / down by ___. | Toplam servetim ___. ___ yükseldi / düştü. | Minha fortuna total é ___. Subiu / caiu ___. | Mi fortuna total es ___. Subió / bajó ___. |
| The news said ___, so ___. | Haberlerde ___ deniyordu, bu yüzden ___. | A notícia dizia ___, então ___. | La noticia decía ___, así que ___. |
| My biggest slice is ___. I will rebalance / hold because ___. | En büyük dilimim ___. Yeniden dengeleyeceğim / tutacağım çünkü ___. | Minha maior fatia é ___. Vou reequilibrar / manter porque ___. | Mi porción más grande es ___. Voy a reequilibrar / mantener porque ___. |
| I felt ___ when the prices dropped. | Fiyatlar düşünce ___ hissettim. | Eu me senti ___ quando os preços caíram. | Me sentí ___ cuando bajaron los precios. |
| My return is ___ percent because ___. | Getirim yüzde ___ çünkü ___. | Meu retorno é de ___ por cento porque ___. | Mi rendimiento es de ___ por ciento porque ___. |
| The crisis taught me ___. | Kriz bana ___ öğretti. | A crise me ensinou ___. | La crisis me enseñó ___. |
| Next time I will ___. | Bir dahaki sefere ___ yapacağım. | Da próxima vez, eu vou ___. | La próxima vez voy a ___. |

- **The printed ledger fallback.** Any student without a device on any day trades on paper: the teacher posts the day's prices, the student writes the trade on the Paper Ledger sheet (`Handout 02.19 - Paper Ledger.md`), and the teacher enters it on the site during the period or after school. No student loses a trading day for a missing device.
- **Boxes, not essays.** The journal and the report are boxes with prompts. Three sentences and a number is a complete entry.
- **Choice of product** for the report (see above) and extended time: part 7 can finish in the first Round 2 window of Lesson 2.20.
- **The leaderboard.** Only merchant numbers or chosen trading-house names appear. If rank is a stressor, tell me and I will seat you where the projector is not in view on Days 9 and 13. Nobody's rank is read below the top five.
- **A written alternative** for a student absent on the crisis day: the decision grid done on paper from the printed Day 6 and Day 7 prices, with the look back, so criterion 3 can still be scored.

## How it is scored

Rubric 02 has five criteria, each scored Not Yet (1), Approaching (2), Meets (3), or Exceeds (4), for 20 points: 1. trading participation and journal; 2. analysis and decision making; 3. emotional control during the crisis; 4. the report's math and reflection; 5. the revised budget. You fill the self-assessment row before I score. Your rank on the leaderboard is not a criterion; a merchant who finished last with a clear report and a written decision in the crisis can score 20.

The project counts in the labs and projects category (40 percent of the marking period). A late report is accepted with a one-level drop on one criterion, never a zero.

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# The paper ledger version (no devices)

If the site is down, the Wi-Fi is down, or the class has no devices, the whole simulation runs on paper with the same ten days, the same lessons, and the same report. The teacher is the market.

**What you need.** `Handout 02.19 - Paper Ledger.md` (one ledger sheet per student, plus the teacher key with the price table and the dispatch script), the board, and a calculator per pair.

**How a day runs.**
1. The teacher reads the day's dispatch aloud from the script (twice, once slow).
2. The teacher posts the day's seven prices on the board from the price table.
3. Students update the "price now" column and the "value" column on their ledger sheet (units held times price now), and total their fortune (cash plus all values).
4. Trading window: students write each trade on the ledger (ticker, buy or sell, units, price, cash in or out), then update cash and units. Whole units only. Cash may not go below zero.
5. The teacher collects the sheets at the bell every day, or students keep them in the folder if the class can be trusted with its own prices.

**The crisis on paper.** Day 6 prices fall hard for SPRK and CLDB and a little for MDOW; SEAL and HNYP hold; the dispatch says why. Day 7 falls further. Day 8 recovers. The four-corners poll, the decision grid, and Return Math all work from the sheet.

**The leaderboard on paper.** The teacher (or two student clerks, by merchant number only) lists total fortune at the end of Day 8 on the board for the closing bell on Day 9.

**Round 2 on paper.** Days 10 to 12 prices are in the price table. Same routine, ten minutes.

**What is lost and what is not.** Lost: the live ticker, the between-window suspense, and the site's own ledger export (the paper ledger is the export). Not lost: every decision, every number in the report, and every criterion on the rubric.

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# Teacher notes on the project

- This is Sal's Fortune Street simulation compressed from his 15-day plan (plus a Day 16 essay) to ten 40-minute lesson days and three ten-minute Round 2 windows. His Days 1 and 2 became Lesson 2.14; Day 3 became 2.15; Day 4 became 2.16; Days 5 and 6 (venture analysis and the pre-crisis audit) were folded into 2.15 Day 2 and 2.16; Days 7 and 8 became 2.17; Days 9, 10, and 11 became 2.18 (the Sharpe ratio idea in his Day 10 is cut; the grade 8 stretch keeps the "when you measure from" point); Day 12 (contrarian thinking) is cut; Days 13, 14, 15, and 16 became 2.19 and Round 2. Every one of his four rubric criteria is still on Rubric 02.
- The reveal on Day 9 and the Round 2 windows on Days 11 to 13 are in that order because the scope and sequence places Topic 2.5 after Topic 2.4. Round 2 turns that constraint into a second experiment: does knowing what the ventures are change behavior? The Round 2 leaderboard on Day 13 answers it in front of the class.
- The personal budget in part 7 copies from the summary lines table on page 3 of `Handout 02.09 - Budget Builder and Scenario Cards.md` (income, needs, savings, wants, total spending, balance), which uses the same six lines as the report template's revision table. The 2.9 budget is built from a scenario card, so the "Before" column is that card's person and the "After" column is the student's revision of it; the 2.9 handout already puts savings first, so the revision is a raise, a split, or a named place for the savings, not a first savings line.
- Privacy: PIN cards, merchant numbers, no names on the site, no names on the leaderboard, the ledger export filed by number. The master list of who holds which number stays in the desk. A student who wants a trading-house name picks a fictional one.
- Budget for the unit plan: none beyond printing. Twelve plastic eggs and three baskets for Lesson 2.16 if the room does not have them (about $8). Four corner signs, printed.
- Sal's Desktop files disagree on the starting purse (25,000 vs 10,000), the currency (Florins vs AQ), the crisis name (The Great Dustfall vs The Clash of the Deep), and the login (first name vs PIN). This unit uses AQ25,000, AQ, "the crisis," and period plus merchant number plus PIN, and marks each with [Sal: confirm] where it appears on a slide.