Have you ever been given a pointless assignment? When you come to class does it even benefit you? Summer projects are something that many teachers hand out. Most of the projects help, but the ones that are students-designed do not help. Summer projects should be teacher-designed because, teachers already understand the subject, if the project is too easy the student will not remember the lessons, and it will allow teachers to gauge how much the students know about the subject.

All teachers have to pass a certain threshold to become a teacher. They can not know anything about a subject and get the job. When teachers give out a summer assignment, they give it knowing that it will benefit the students. When I took Computer Science, we were told to create a game using the stuff that we have learned throughout the year. I asked my teacher if I could code a Minecraft block, because Minecraft is coded in Java Script. My teacher gave me permission, but had no experience coding in Minecraft. I came to realize that it was not really coding it was more like inserting commands that we had no knowledge of into Eclipse. To code the block all I had to do was copy and paste commands and change them to what I wanted them to be. When it came time to present my project after summer I had no clue what I actually used from the class. My teacher ended up telling my to code something else up in the parameters that she had given me. From that I also learned more of the material.

The reason students are given homework is to practice the material and to familiarize the material. If the material is too easy, then the students can not learn the material at all. For instance, before I took Algebra 2, I took it on Khan Academy. I really did not want to learn it at all so, I did all of the easy questions. Once I got into the Algebra 2 class I did not remember a single thing that I learned over the summer. If I was given a packet then, I would have done it all, but this was an online course where one could pick and choose what they wanted to do. I would have known what I was doing in class beforehand if I was given a packet. Sometimes these projects are just given so that teachers can know what the student knows.

Teachers always give students diagnostics in class. This allows them to know how much the student know, and also how much time they need to spend on certain topics. Both in my Geometry and Pre-Calculus classes my teachers handed out diagnostics. I would always get A's and B's on the topics that we had just spent a little bit of time on. My teachers would save time for themselves and us by breezing through a topic that we already knew. We ended up finishing the course a week or two before school ended. That allowed us to learn parts of the next math course giving us a head start on the other students. Come time next year I knew exactly what we were doing in class before the other students. This saves the county time and money and the students. Many students do not like the idea of a teacher-designed project, but they do not realize how beneficial it is.

When the teacher knows the subject they can create a project that is not too easy. Then when the student completes the summer project, they understand the subject to a higher degree and it is fresh in their brain. Students can then come to class having learned what they needed to over the summer. Student-designed summer projects would allow students to have more time during the summer to have fun. However, having harder teacher-designed projects will allow students to learn how to balance work and fun come time when they have a real job.