Some schools require students to complete summer projects to assure we continue learning during break. Should these projects be teacher-designed or student-designed? As a student, I strongly believe that the summer projects should be student-designed. Even though teachers will disagree, they're wrong! When a student gets to choose what he or she does for their project, I know that we'll have more fun completing it and we'll be given the chance to become more creative than what a teacher would make us do.

Summer break is suppose to be fun. If a teacher gave us a project, we'd be sitting at home, all alone, inside reading about a great adventure, when we could be having our own! Instead of writing a boring paper, with no enthusiasm, about someone else experience, we could have the chance to go out and make our own. Then, the paper would be full of passion. I would rather design my own project that would not only make my teachers happy, but will let me have fun while completing it!

Another great reason students should design their summer project, is because is gives us the chance to become creative. Creativity inspires us to thrive and do our best. For example, a few years ago I was told to come up with a way to show how bullying can change ones life. I had a great idea! I went around the school and asked ten people if they were ever bullied. If they said yes, I asked them how it changed their life, or if it even did. I wrote down everything they said, and decided to make a short play. The play was about a little girl who was bullied her entire life, and the things she stopped doing because of the bullies. The play showed everything the teacher wanted to know and more! I loved doing that project, and to this day I will never forget how proud I was and how much fun I had doing it! It gave me the chance to explore my creativity. I wish i could get the chance to do it again!

I understand schools want us to continue to learn during our break, but that's why we should have fun while doing it! A student-designed project gives us the chance to have fun, make our own experiences and explore our creativity! When a student enjoys doing the project the outcome, or grade, will become a lot better. This is why I believe the student-designed projects would be better than any teacher-designed project. It gives us a chance to grow, not only as a student, but as a person too!