Student or Teacher Designed Summer Projects

I think the projects should be student designed. While others may say they should be teacher designed since they think they know what is best for the students or they should be able to know what they are going to be grading rather than being blind-sided with a project on a random topic, they however, are wrong. They are wrong because during school, students are always handed work by the teacher and this would be a good opportunity for the teacher to grade something that they are not expecting. I chose this position because some students will not have much time during the summer, it gives students a chance to challenge the teacher, and it also gets the student thinking more since they have to come up with a project from scratch rather than reading it off a piece of paper.

First, I think the projects should be student designed because some students will not have much time during the summer. By this I mean some students will be working all summer to save as much money as possible to say buy a car or save for after high school. If the projects were teacher designed they would include a lot of work that would take a lot of time, time in which some people may not have. If it were student designed the student could complete it at his or her own pace as well as the work they have completed whether it is a little or a lot. I also think teachers should stop feeling bad for the people that choose not to do work. Most of my teachers often give the kids that choose not to do work a second chance to gain points, which I think should be stopped as well. If they choose not to do the work then that is on them, same applies with the summer projects. Even if a student works everyday I'm sure they can find the time to at least write a couple sentences on a topic and if not then they should receive a zero.

Secondly, I think the projects should be student designed because it gives students a chance to challenge the teacher. I think every student could agree with me on this one, all teachers hand out work that needs to be completed and sometimes there is hardly a review on the assignment before completing it which leaves some students stranded in the dark. With a student designed project a student could talk or write about anything in the world and when the teacher receives it to grade they may have to research information about what it is because they may not know. Which would be the challenging part to teachers since they always make students figure things out, this gives the students a chance to flip the script.

Finally, I think the projects should be student designed because it also gets the student thinking more since they have to come up with a project from scratch rather than reading it off a piece of paper. With most teacher designed projects they give you an option or two to do this or that which makes it easier on the student to just pick a topic and talk about it. With a student designed project the student has to come up with a topic from a stand still start. This gets the student thinking more to find something to talk about then figure out what direction they are going to go with it; speech, PowerPoint, essay, etc. In my opinion that is the best way to do summer projects so the student thinks for themselves and at their own pace rather than doing something they are made to do and then have to rush to finish it because they don't know how hard it will be or if they have enough time at all.

In this situation would you choose student or teacher designed? Why? Is it because you are a teacher, student or a parent? Whatever the case may be I hope that you can come to see that student designed summer projects are better for both parties. Not only because it challenges teachers, makes students think more, and there is no time for students. But because more than likely you are a parent yourself or have younger siblings in school and you can see the stress that it built up in them trying to work, projects, and also make you or your parents happy all at the same time.