ACTION RESEARCH

Finding More Time

Jennifer Roscoe EDUC 526 Capstone Experience in Digital Teaching and Learning Professor: Matt Hixson Murrieta Regional Center July 25, 2013

Abstract It is important to have a balance between work and play in your life; however, over time I have lost this balance and, as such, my action research is to spend more time on myself and doing activates I enjoy by myself, with family, and friends. Section One: Introduction Ever since I started school, as an undergrad in September of 2007, I have had little to no time to do the things I enjoy with taking an overload of courses, summer courses, and APUs fast pace adult professional studies. Additionally, working as a substitute teacher and being my dads caregiver is very time consuming and leaves little time for myself. I need to find the balance between the two in order to maintain a healthy relationship professionally and personally, as I feel I have lost a little piece of myself with everything focused around my higher education, substitute teaching, professional development, and caring for my dad. I feel this is the perfect time to give back to myself due to the fact that I am not working over the summer, only taking one course, and my dad is physically in a stable place at this time, which will hopefully allow more time for doing activities I enjoy and getting that little piece of myself back. Section Two: Implementation I carried out my action research by giving myself an allotted time a day, three hours max, to work on school work for my capstone and an allotted time a day, a minimum of one hour, to complete an activity that I enjoyed. I also allowed myself times in which I took the entire weekend off to not do any school work. Some of the barriers that occurred were unforeseen events like my dads doctors appointments taking longer than expected, my dog

getting a hematoma in his ear, and the search for eleven year old Terry Smith in Menifee. I made a chart, as seen below, to chart everything I did for myself during the day that provided me the personal time was looking for, along with the time it took. I will make it a point to chart every day, so I can stay on top of all the activities and time without forgetting. Section Three: Results Wednesday
th Week 1 June 19

Thursday
20
th

Friday
21
st

Saturday
22
nd

Sunday
23
rd

Monday
24
th

Tuesday
25
th

Total Hours 28 hrs.

Played with my goats: 1 hour

Watched Warm Bodies and Broken City with Mikey, my husband: ~ 3 1/2hrs

Did some gardening in the morning and went on a walk with Mikey after dinner: 2 hour
28
th

Went to the San Diego Zoo and had dinner with Mikey and his cousin, Anthony: 9 hours

Went with Mikey to the fair in Del Mar then went to my sisters for BBQ: 10 hours
th

Went to get haircut and do a little shopping: 3 hours

Did not do anything for myself. Just a busy day doing errands and cleaning: 0 hours
2
nd

th Week 2 26

27

th

29

th

30

July 1

st

23 hrs.

Did some gardening and watering of plants then hung outside until it got too hot which was really early : 1 hours
rd Week 3 3

I forgot to log and I do not think I did anything at least that I remember: 0 hours

Mikey and I met at my mom and Ricks house for dinner with old friends visiting from Canada: 4 hours
5
th

Went to the Sea World with Mikey and Anthony funny ran into friends while there: 9 hours

Went to church and spent time at home with Mikey and nephew Sage. Did gardening at night: 5 hours
7
th

Family came over for BBQ and to pick up Sage from our house: 4 hours

Did not have time. Did Dads doctor appointment and had class at night.

th

th

th

th

25 hours

Did not have much time had to take care of Dads bank,

Spent time with family at my house and enjoyed

Did gardening in the morning and dinner

Went to my sisters and the famers market and then we went

Went to church. Searched for Terry, the missing

Searched for Terry, the missing Menifee

Searched for Terry, the missing Menifee

shopping, bills and other chores. Did spend an hour with mom just talking at her house: 1 hr.

the fourth of July BBQing: 8 hours

with Mikey and friends, A.J. and Natalie: 5 hrs.

and BBQ at Aunt Sues and Uncle Berts house: 11 hrs.

Menifee boy.

boy.

boy.

The results were actually better than I expected. Many of the days, I was able to spend more time than I thought doing activities I enjoyed. Events came up that I was able to be part of and like I thought, with only taking one course and not working, I had more time to spend with loved ones and accept invitations to family events and other fun activities. Week One: I spent 28 hours doing little things I enjoyed by myself, such as playing with the goats and other animals around the property, gardening, and getting my hair cut and styled. I also was able to do things with people I care about and spend a more substantial amount of time with them, such as taking Anthony, my husbands cousin, to the San Diego Zoo for his first time, spending the day at the Del Mar fair with my husband, and BBQing with my sister and family. Only one day I was not able to fit something in, but the rest of the week made up for it. Week Two: I spent 23 hours doing activities I enjoyed while two days I did not have time to complete activities for myself. It was a hot week, so I did not fit much gardening in; which disappointed me; however, my husband and I did visit old friends who were in from Canada, went to Sea World with Anthony (for his first time), and BBQ with my brothers family when they came over to pick up my nephew. This week I started to attend church again and it

felt great. This, I believe, was the best thing I could have done for myself. I am looking forward to being part of a church again and hearing Gods word. Week Three: I spent 25 hours having fun with family and friends this week. On the Fourth of July, we had a BBQ at our house and had our family over. It was awesome to have everyone together and allowing the cousins to play while the adults all talked, and then we played some family games together. During this week, my husband and I also went out to dinner with some friends and then I went to my sisters for the day; we went to the farmers market, hung out with the family, and then we all went to my Aunt Sues house for a get together. Sad to say this week ended in a bad note with the announcement that Terry Smith, an eleven year old boy, also known as JuJu, went missing four streets away from my house. I searched with over 1,000 people for three days; however, the outcome was not good; JuJu was found in a shallow grave on his own property and his half-brother was arrested for murder.

Section Four: Conclusion The conclusions I draw from this study is what a great community I live in and am part of. When JuJu went missing it was an outpour of support from the community. I have found that life is very precious and you never know when it can be cut short. It is important to have the balance of professional and personal life in order to live life to the fullest and not have regrets. This is part of the reason why I chose teaching as a career, because I wanted to do something I enjoyed and something I would love as time went on. I also learned, over the years I did lose a little piece of me and it felt good getting it back by spending time with myself, family, and friends. It was very nice having as much time as I did, but I realize once I go back to

work, I will not be able to spend as much time as I did during this three week period. However, I do plan on continuing to give to my personal life by making it a point to spend at least an hour a day doing something for myself and even sometimes taking the entire weekend to give myself a break. Section Five: General Comments I enjoyed using the action research process because being able to identify a problem, plan an implementation, and strategize instruments in order to carry out the action research truly help in solving a problem. During the three weeks, I liked tracking my results; this was actually my favorite part, because I could see how I was doing and if I was making progress on my problem. On days I was not able to meet my goal, I thought well sometimes life happens and there is always tomorrow. I learned I would definitely use the action research plan again in order to try to find a solution for a problem and track how it is going. This is perfect and if something is not working based on results, it is easy to come up with a new strategy and try again.