Summer is supposed to be a time for students to take a break from learning, be able to go on vacation, and relax. Althought, summer is primarily for relaxation, schools don't want sudents to fall behind during those months, or forget what they learned in the previous year. Due to this, many schools have introduced summer projects for students to complete to build on what they learned and to prepare them for the upcoming year. Some schools allow for these projects to be student-designed, where others have made the teacher-designed. Summer projects should be teacher-designed to ensure students are learning based on what they need to know coming into the next year, allow for teachers to be able to help them easier, and give them the highest probability of suceeding in the upcoming year.

Teacher designed projects would allow for student to have a baseline understanding of the information they need to know. During the summer going into sophmore year, I was assigned a summer project by my AP World History teacher. She gave us a very long project about 600bc, and I was not intrested at all. I worked on it all summer, and by the time school started, she began to teach the information I had learned in the summer. The project had made the first part of the corse a lot easier. I didn't struggle understanding the information because I already knew it. If I had picked my own project i don't believe I would have been as prepared to start a hard class like AP World History as much as I was because of my teacher-designed summer project.

Along with preparing kids for new informtion they will need to understand, having teacher-designed summer projects would allow for the teacher to be able to help their student easier. If a student had a question about their project, and the student choose what it was on, the teacher may not know how to help because of the fact they didn't design it. It would make the teacher unsure of the direction the student may be taking with their project, and ultimetly making it difficult to help them. On the other hand, if the teacher had designed the project, they would know exactly how to help a struggling student because they took the time to create it and understand the ideas.

Although having techers design the student projects, allowing for them to be student-designed would allow for more diverse and creative projects. Kids would be able to choose something that intrestes them verses having to do something assigned that they don't care about. The more a student is intrested and wants to learn about a topic, the more effort they are going to put into the project. With students choosing their project it would seem like less of a chore to do during their time off. It may also be benifitial for the teacher too see how their students work and how creative they are before the year is fully underway.

Not only would schools having teacher-designed projects allow for students to grain helpful knowledge before the school year starts and have the highest chaces at succeding, but it would also help the teacher know how to help student that are struggling. Having student-designed projects may allow for more student creativity and intrest, but might be less benifitial in the long run. Schools should have teacher-designed projects during the summer to ensure maximum learning and ensure their students the best chances of succeding.