Imagine having to complete a project over summer break. Sounds miserable, right? Now think about a project designed by you, for you. I believe that summer projects should be designed by students because it would be in their best interest, would allow them to be more creative and give the teachers a glimpse at their students potential. Many teachers assign projects that no student wants to do over the break, but if the students were to design the projects it would make them more eager to complete the assignment given.

The first reason why I believe students should design their own summer projects is their interest. Teachers often give projects on subjects that their students usually don't find interesting. This results in sloppy, unfinished, careless work that might not even meet the criterion required. The reason behind this is because the students doesn't care about what they're learning. Now if the teachers were to tailor projects to things that students find interesting they would put more effort into what they are doing instead of thinking, "whats the least amount of work I can do to get an A on this project". Some people say that students being lazy is the reason why they don't put effort into their work, however they;re wrong because the teacher is supposed to make learning interesting so that students want to learn.

Many students have hobbies and things they enjoy doing. If projects were designed around their hobbies and interests than it would provoke them to do better work. When a teacher sets a template for a project or any assignment this puts a leash on the students and hinders their creative ideas. What teachers also don't realize is that some students use the template to their advantage by completing the bare minimum amount of work. For example, if you're told to have a project with five facts about the solar system you could use basic facts like,"Earth has one moon" and it would be an acceptable answer. The amount of work that the student has to do becomes way easier because of the template the teacher provided. One great way to make kids be more creative is tell them,"teach it like you've never heard of it before". For example, if you were told to teach a class for beginners about computer coding pretend you're teaching it to someone who has never heard of a computer before. If a student were to design a project for another student it would be more free form and allow for a plethora of different ideas and make for some amazing projects. Some people may say that students could choose a topic that is too easy or not related to the learning in class, however they are wrong because the teacher can provide confirmation to make sure the project is relevant and difficult enough.

My final reason why students should design their own projects is potential. Students are given a formula approach to learning where there's only one way to get things right and that's by using the formula provided by the teachers. This greatly limits and prevents development of potential. One person said,"schools don't teach us about money because they're training us to be employees and not managers and CEO s", and I believe that teaching students and project format are to blame. Teachers should let their students loose for their summer projects. When the sky is the limit students love to go above and beyond. These projects would be designed by students without help from teachers. Now with assistance from their teachers they could correct things that the student got wrong, which would boost potential instead of hindering it. Nurturing and supporting students would boost their confidence and hopefully make them strive to do even better with their work.

In conclusion summer projects should be something that students want to do over the summer instead of moping and completing last minute because they would be more interested, more creative and would allow for teachers to catch a glimpse at student potential. The job of a teacher is to help students learn and grow and if they provide assistance, support and corrections of student ideas and project design i'm positive that students would enjoy designing and completing their own projects over the summer.