Having a project assigned to you during summer is nothing but dreadful however, engaging in a topic you are interested in feels less like a project and more like a learning journey. Being able to select your own project will ensure you are engaged in what you are learning, prompting creativity! When students are presented with a project that allows them to be creative they are then truly enabled to produce great work. A teacher will not be at the tip of a students finger in summer in order to resolve any questions about an assignment given, but when the project is chosen by the student many of these questions are only resolvable on their own terms. Summer is not a time students want to be engulfed by yet another project given by their teacher, but having a productive outlet for students to be creative will bring about great results.

Being assigned a topic you are not interested in brings about dread, a sense of wasted time, and many other negative emotions; which will likely only produce work lacking its full potential. When a student is given the choice to produce work that interest them the students true potential is often seen. Choosing a topic independently makes your work more interesting, knowing you are the only person working on it. Having a teacher assign you a project feels more like just another paper to you and the teacher than your work does knowing you are producing creative, meaningful, and worth-while work. Feeling that reassurance that you are creating unique work makes a project feel more like an enrichment to your education rather than just another dreadful assignment.

Many people are held back from expressing their full creativity because they simply are not interested in the project they are given in such a way for it to resonate with them on a creative level. However, having students select their own project eliminates that problem. Working on something that you have no interest in verses something that you want to put your effort and time into creates two completely different results. Spending your energy on something you actually want to work on is bound to have much more pleasing results than something you are not very interested in. Having this option also gets rid of any doubt you are potential doing your assignment incorrectly.

The point of a summer project is to keep your mind engaged while you are out of the classroom setting. However, you may still need help and have questions about your assignment in summer where you do not have readily access to someone who can answer your questions. Being assigned a specific project is bound to bring about stress on whether or not you are doing it correctly. With a project that allows you to choose and be more creative with your assignment you have the ability to shape your ideas around how you think they should be done and not have the stress of a projects guidelines and curriculum.

Some may say students are bound to select a topic that they can easily brush off without much thought but, many students seek for somewhere to unleash their creativity and have it seen in a positive productive way. Having a student-designed project is a great opportunity for many learners and educators to bring their own lives and preferences into learning. Projects should be based more upon personal learning and preference rather than curriculum and rubrics.