Welcome to Peri’s Clipboard!
If you have ever been to Outdoor School, you know how important a director’s clipboard is. It holds all things necessary for keeping an organized program. I have been using the same clipboard for 22 years. I grabbed it out of big cardboard box as a high school cabin leader. It has held the names of over 2,000 sixth grade students, original lesson plans I created as a field study instructor, canned lessons I created as director, hero notes for fellow staff members, hero notes from fellow staff members, hand scratched notes to bring up at staff meetings…and countless other odds and ends that find their way among the pile that is barely able to be tethered by that metal clamp at the top. My clipboard is an extension of my arm at Outdoor School. When I hold it I feel more grounded and organized. When I’ve set it down somewhere and can’t immediately remember where it was left, I begin anxiously searching. I’ve had troubling dreams at Outdoor School of dropping it into the campfire or lake or river…
All that to say, my clipboard is important to me. It has become part of my identity as an Outdoor School director and each time I hold it I remember that I am holding a group of students who are ready to learn. Students that will experience sifting soil with their hands, smelling the decay of fallen trees in a forest, and hearing the sounds birds and wind and water. Students who will have countless unique experiences related to being connected to others. It’s a lot to hold on a clipboard, but the weight is well worth it.