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This Week at South

This Week at South - 6.5: Time, Value, and Intent

Greetings South Students, Parents, Staff, and Community Members,

Past issues of this newsletter are available at the following link: TWaS Archive. 

TWaS is also sent via Canvas Messenger and linked to my Canvas Module for all students and families to access, and shared on South’s FB page.

Part I: The News

Content Disclaimer: I am not omniscient. Don’t see your event or results in the newsletter below? I rely on parents, coaches, and others to send me information to include in the newsletter. Feel free to share positive news and results anytime via my email. 

It’s Homecoming Week:

There are several events planned this week to celebrate Homecoming. As usual, we have dress up days (see below). Awards will be given for the most spirited each day. A Club Fair will happen at lunch on Tuesday (see below). 

  1. Monday: Comfy Day
  2. Tuesday: Dress like a tourist or wear an item from your travels
  3. Wednesday: Camo Day
  4. Thursday: Neon Day
  5. Friday: Black and Gold Day

The Homecoming Assembly will take place between fourth and fifth period on Friday (bell schedule below). 

On Saturday, Flag Football starts at 9 am and games conclude with the 3 pm Varsity Football Game. Court, Crowning, and Floats will occur at halftime of the Varsity game. Saturday night, the Homecoming Dance will take place from 8 to 11 pm in the commons. All times, dates, and details are linked below.

This Week in Activities:

Although there is a calm start to the week, activities pick up as the week goes on. A full calendar with times is HERE. 

Friday, September 13th Assembly Bell Schedule:

  • Period 1 -- 8:45 - 9:30
  • Period 2 -- 9:36 - 10:21
  • Period 3 -- 10:27 - 11:12
  • LUNCH -- 11:12 - 12:00
  • Period 4 -- 12:00 - 12:45
  • Assembly 12:45 - 1:39
  • Period 5 -- 1:39 - 2:24
  • Period 6 -- 2:30 - 3:15

Club Fair at Lunch on Tuesday:

South has a wide range of clubs students can join. They are a good way to spend productive time with others who have common interests. At lunch on Tuesday several clubs and activities will have tables set up where students can get more information and sign up. 

South Swimmers at Big 8 Invite:

South swimmers had a strong showing at the Big Eight swim meet this weekend. Notable wins:

  • 200 IM - Zoe Fencil, 2nd place
  • 500 Freestyle - Alex Kotter, 2nd place; Reese Romspert, 3rd place
  • 200 Freestyle Relay - South ladies took 3rd place
  • 100 Breaststroke - Zoe Fencil, 3rd place
  • 400 Freestyle Relay - South ladies took 3rd place

The team’s next meet is this Friday, September 13, 6:00 pm at Service High School. It’s the team’s first home meet and they are competing against Dimond.

Get Homecoming Weekend started right by getting out to support our swimmers at Service on Friday!

South and Service Volleyball to Raise Breast Cancer Awareness:

South will travel to Service on Thursday, September 19th for Pink Night to play and help raise breast cancer awareness. As part of the evening events, Providence Imaging Center Mammography will be on sight from 4-8 pm. You can make an appointment by phone. The team who has the most appointments will earn $300. Details on how to make an appointment are in the following flier. 

South Volleyball Results:

Last week, South Varsity got a win at home vs West on Wednesday, and took a tough loss to last year’s state champ, Wasilla, at an away match on Friday. The JV girls traveled to Nikiski Friday and Saturday to compete against several 3A and 4A JV and Varsity teams in 5 separate matches. Overall they ended up 4th in the tournament and enjoyed traveling to play new opponents! 

This week, our girls travel to take on the East Thunderbirds on Tuesday, September 10th and the Chugiak Mustangs on Thursday the 12th. All three teams are 2-1 in conference play so these matches are important. Get out and get loud to support our Wolverine Volleyball teams! C teams play at 5:30 pm, JV at 6:45 and Varsity play begins at 8 pm!

Division of Elections Youth Ambassador Program:

The Youth Ambassador program for the Division of Elections is looking for 16-18 year olds who are interested in working on Election night November 5th at a voting precinct. The pay is $20 an hour. Please contact Lorna at the Division of Elections at 907-522-8683 for more information.

South Baseball Fundraiser with Panda Express - October 4th:

Place an online order with any Panda Express in the nation and South Baseball Boosters will receive 28% of the revenue. Online orders only. Details on this POSTER. 

Fall Sports and Activities Information:

It's going to be a great year for sports at SAHS! Next up are Bowling (9/23), and Wrestling (10/2). 

All athletes need to complete Planet HS (now Big Teams), pay the fee through ParentConnection, and then see Mrs. Cravens in the Activities Office for eligibility processing and a golden ticket. All athletes are required to have a golden ticket to start practice. 

Contact Kara Cravens at cravens_kara@asdk12.org with any questions.

Travel to DC and NYC in Late March:

Join SAHS on a trip to Washington, DC, and New York City from March 24th to March 29th, 2025!  The cost for students is $2627.00, and $2897.00 for adults if you register before August 31st. Register and reserve your spot by paying just $50 before August 31st at explorica.com/Seward‐7679. The price increases after August 31st.

Highlights of the tour are: DC Memorials, U.S. Capitol tour

Supreme Court visit, Mt. Vernon & Arlington National Cemetery, National Museums, Times Square, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, and a Broadway Show.

Spring Break 2025 Travel to Central Europe:

Are you interested in going to Europe for Spring Break 2025? 

South is going to Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, and Switzerland. For more information about the tour, please visit www.eftours.com/2727294RXLinks to an external site..   If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Frankenburger at frankenburger_lydia@asdk12.org or stop by the library.

Part II: What I’m Thinking About

How much of this life would we trade for the various activities we allow to claim our time?

This question is paraphrased from Cal Newport’s book, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, and forms the basis of what I intend to write about over the next four weeks. This week my focus is on time, value, and intent.

We all invest time in different activities each day. In an ideal world, we get a lot of value out of the time we spend because we acknowledge that time is a limited resource and we cannot get it back. Once it’s gone, it’s totally lost. Therefore, wasting it is devastating. In a perfect world we would spend intentional time only on activities that we find valuable. Those activities would create something tangible, create a sense of peace and fulfillment, or make us smarter or stronger. 

However, there is a tendency to spend time on low value activities, especially during unstructured down time. Those kinds of activities do not return value, they do not create tangible outcomes and they do not create a sense of peace and fulfillment nor make us better. Several of the low value, high time-demand activities tend to be spent on the apps on our smartphones. While checking them might feel good in the short term, little long-term value is produced.

Luckily, it is easy to measure how we spend time on our phones and then to ask what value that time has to each of us. Using the screen time menu in the settings app of an iPhone, one can see how much time is spent on each app, how many times the phone is picked up during the day, and how many notifications are received. It also allows you to place limits on use.

I’ll use myself as an example. Accessing my screen time breakdown, last week looked like the following:

  • I used my phone an average of 67 minutes each day.
  • I picked up my phone an average of 53 times per day.
  • I received an average of 84 notifications.
  • The majority of my app use was on Outlook, Text Messaging, Substack, Facebook and Instagram. 

Then, I ask the value questions. Is that a reasonable amount of time, notifications, and am I using those apps for high value activity? In other words, am I intentional in my use of time and am I getting value?

In general, yes. As a Principal, I’m expected to be in touch with approximately 100 people per day. I use Outlook to answer email, text messages to answer short questions and provide quick reminders; Substack to post this part of the newsletter; the school Facebook page to post the whole newsletter and other updates; and my personal Facebook and Instagram for a short amount of mindless time in the evenings. 

Next, I ask: what could I do better? How could I increase long-term value?

I could eliminate the mindless time on the latter two social media apps, and only use them when I am generating content. That is, when I’m posting a picture or a piece of writing, and when I am keeping up with friends’ lives who I don’t get to see very often. Better yet, I could call those friends instead of scrolling through their feeds. Or invite them to have coffee if they live in Alaska. When I receive a text message with a question that takes more than five words to answer, I could call that person or walk to their office. Instead of responding to email on my phone, I can confine my responses to my computer at work. The list could go on, but you get the idea. 

In the end, I encourage everyone to do a time/value/intent audit. What insights does your usage provide you? How can you spend more time on high value activities and less time on low value, high time demand activities? 

If you added up the time you spend on low value activities in a week, what newfound skill could you master, how many more walks could you take, how many more friends could you actually speak to in person? 

If you shouldn’t be trading life for a low value activity, think about eliminating it.

For much more on these ideas, visit Cal Newport’s blog post on Digital Minimalism: https://calnewport.com/on-digital-minimalism/

As Always, Onward!

Luke Almon, Principal