Whether we are a students or not we are constantly learning new things, its a part of life. Thats how we mentally grow and experience new things. Summer is the one time of the year where we get a long period of holidays, everyone plans out their summer differently. Some have trips plans out while others have no idea how they're going to spend their free time. Majority of students don't like having any sort of school work during summer but to my knowledge a lot of schools and colleges give their students some sort of summer work to do, whether thats paper work or going out and doing field work. I agree with schools giving their students teacher-designed summer projects. The reasoning being that our teachers know best what knowledge we need to retain or dive deeper into. And they also know their students capabilities, they won't assign something they know isn't realistic or hard to accomplish. Teachers always try to make their learning material interesting so their students are more invested into the topic, which is why it's more reasonable to have teacher-designed summer projects.

Whether we think we know everything or not, we are still students who are learning and growing from our mistakes. At times we might think we know whats best for us, and that might be true in some cases, but a lot of the time taking someone's advice who is older then us and is much more experienced, helps. Students might argue with their teachers that what they've learned and studied all year will stay in their memory and that they don't need summer projects on them. But the benefit of having teacher-designed projects is that it helps us not forget what we've learned all year, they are designed in a way that help us retain our knowledge. This way the effort our teachers put in to teach us new things does't go to waste. One summer my biology teacher had given me a summer project of making a 3D display of the heart. At first I didn't want to do it but my teacher advised me that it'll help me retain the knowledge I knew about the heart, which indeed it did. In the beginning everything I knew about the heart wasn't as perfectly stored in my memory but after doing this project not only did I know the parts of the heart but also all of their functions and the purpose of the heart which is to pump blood. Not only was I able to learn and memorize my material perfectly but I also learned new things. If my teacher had let us pick and design our own summer projects, knowing myself I would have picked something that would have been far too easy and on a topic that I knew I was perfect at. That wouldn't have helped me at all ,although it would have been easy work I wouldn't have learned anything and I would have wasted my time. Being a student means that you should always be learning something, teacher-designed summer projects are might for this reason.

When teachers design our summer projects, they keep in mind the capabilities their students have and whether the project they're designing is realistic for their students to accomplish with out struggling. Teachers are always trying to help their students out in any way possible, they would never assign something in which students are bound to fail in. At times when students are given the choice to choose their project, a majority vote is taken just so the whole class is working on the same topic. A lot of the times, what I've experience is that students agree to things just because their classmates want to do it, in the fear that their friends and classmates will go against them. This way some students don't feel comfortable doing the project because they know it'll be hard for them. When teachers design our projects they keep in mind how every student will attempt the project and this way all the students are able to complete the project without having a hard time. When ever my teacher left it up to me to pick a project I would have a hard time choosing one because I wouldn't know how it'll turn our or will I have a hard time completing it half way through. When my English teacher told us we were going to have a summer project of reading a novel and writing a essay on it, I was excited but I was also worried that the novel our class might choose, I wouldn't like or have hard time understanding. My teacher made it easier for us when she picking the novel her self. She knew what kind of book her class would be interested in and would be able to complete the assignment.

Some might say that teacher-designed projects would be boring and thats some thing they don't want to do in summer as they want to enjoy their time off from school. But teachers understand that and know that the only way their students will complete their project is that if it wasn't boring. Even during the school year teachers try to make their lessons as interesting as possible to keep their kids involved. Summer projects don't have to be paper work, it can also be something that has to be physically done. So, that means that you'll have fun, new experiences, they might also be required to be done with a friend which makes the project a whole lot better. So I still agree with teacher-designed projects as they not only help us but keep us on the right path of what we should be doing and learning while having fun.

In conclusion, I consider having teacher-designed summer projects much more beneficial for us. It not only saves us from the trouble of choosing and deciding on a project but also gives the opportunity for our teacher to help us out with anything we're struggling with and need more practice on. This responsibility should be left on the teacher and not the student. Summer might be a time to enjoy and relax but that shouldn't mean that we should totally let ourselves go and be unproductive. Having summer projects at times gives us new experiences and they help us out when we come back to school, not having forgotten everything.