Volume 14

This Week at South Vol. 14

Good Morning South Students, Parents, Staff, and Community Members,

Due to the school closure today, the Weekly Bulletin will follow tomorrow.

Part I: The News

Last Week in Sport:

*Please note: As we transition from Fall to Winter Sports, please feel free to send me information on our teams’ scores and standout performances. I am happy to include everyone in this section; no one is deliberately omitted; however, I do rely on email to gather information to share with our community.   Thanks!

Girls Hockey beat Chugiak-Eagle River 10-1 in Friday night’s Game.  Freshman Isabel Goolie scored a Hat Trick! Additional goals were scored by Seniors Nicole Ness (2), Alex Donald and Laney Millar, and Sophomores Zella Aspengren and Sydney Perrault. Freshman Brenna Millar also added a goal. Here’s a shot of some of the action in front of our goal. This coming Friday our Girls Hockey Team will be playing in the High School Girls Hockey Outdoor Classic at 5:30 pm on the Mulcahy Outdoor Rink. 

South Wrestling had another successful weekend of competition. The team won the Grace Christian Shakedown tournament, and finished with 6 individual champions: Aedyn Concepcion, Simon Keffalos, Niko Mayo, Theo Cha, Brandon Deyarmon, and Jack Moore. Here’s the team with their hardware after their win.

All School Pancake Breakfast This Friday!  

Request from PTSO:

Hello, South High School Families!!

This year we are having our biannual FREE Pancake Breakfast on Friday, Dec.13th to kick off FINALS WEEK!! We need LOTS of helpers and donations!!  Please click on the link below to see what our needs are!!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0449A9AE2CA2FF2-free

Thank you for your support!                                     South High PTSO

Samuel Twenhafel Named to Allstate All American HS Soccer Team:

South Senior, Samuel Twenhafel was named to the first ever Allstate All American High School Soccer Team. There were 125 juniors selected from across the United States, and he was the only player from Alaska to be named to the nationwide team. 

AMCS-South Student Gains Experience in Culinary Gifted Mentorship:

AMCS-South Junior Juliet Eklund is participating in a Gifted Mentorship focusing on culinary arts. As part of her experience, she is learning from sous chef Garry Hanley and head chef Shane Moore at South Restaurant. For more details about her experience in Gifted Mentorship, visit the ASD story featuring her work. For more details on Gifted Mentorships, please visit their ASD webpage. 

South Alumnus Throws Footballs for Scholarship:

Former South High School student Jack Underwood won a $100,000 scholarship! At halftime of the Virginia-Clemson game, “He threw 10 footballs into a giant Dr Pepper can during a 30-second span to become one of five students who collected $100,000 as part of the 11th annual Dr Pepper Tuition Giveaway.”  For more, visit the ADN story about his feat. 

Part II: Big Ideas & Their Application 

As I noted in last week’s T.W.@ S. Part II, I am going to return to Duhigg’s idea of Keystone Habits this week as we near final exams, and plan for our transition to second semester.  

There are perhaps two Keystone Habits that are most fitting to this time of year. The one I’ll focus on below is developing a morning routine, and the second, to which I will return next week in the final volume of this semester, is organizing the day. In some instances, organizing the day might become part of a morning routine.

Nevertheless, developing and sticking to a morning routine to frame the first 60 to 90 minutes of the day has the power to give us leverage with which to be more effective at work, at school, or at home. In essence, sticking to a morning routine is a small win that magnifies the chances we will get more small wins throughout the rest of the day. 

Tim Ferriss, in his book Tools of Titans, cites Navy Admiral William McRaven on one of his morning routines (see also: his University of Texas Commencement Speech) 

  • If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed... If you want to change the world, start by making your bed.  

Ferriss also shares one of his own morning routines: taking 5 to 10 minutes to write in a notebook or journal. Below are the prompts he uses in the morning and in the evening. 

To be answered in the morning:

  1. I am grateful for. . .  (consider writing about an opportunity you have today, something good that happened yesterday, and something simple & in plain sight)
  2. What would make today great? (visualize ideal outcomes of your daily tasks)
  3. Daily affirmation. I am. . . (identify your current strengths)

To be answered in the evening:

  1. Three good things that happened today. . . (can be big or small)
  2. How could I have made the day better. . . (see #2 above as a starting point)

(all in Tools of Titans, p. 146-47).

Intelligent Change makes a pre-formatted journal, and you can just as easily use a plain notebook with the prompts above for the same purpose.

Have a Great Week South!