Page 20 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2022 - Online Magazine
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Senior
Senior
but we learned so much more from
Darla Dunn her than how to think creatively.
Coming back all these years later to
talk to her and catch up, I realized
Still Making a before. Though I had experienced
so many things I had not seen
her work ethic and caring love, I did
not know the source of it. I did not
Difference know how much thought she had
put into every single project that we
would do. Great care and planning
by Lyndee Jo Stamps
went into the program, but now
looking back, I am starting to see
that it wasn’t simply the projects
and then organize and activities that made it special; it
projects around those was Mrs. Dunn herself.
themes. The goal When I talked with her, it
was to encourage wasn’t just an interview; it was a
self-directed thinking conversation. She has always had
and learning. Mrs. a way of connecting on a personal
Dunn was so good at level. We sat at her kitchen table
her job that she filled talking for hours. We covered a lot
that role for 24 years of topics, but one thing really stuck
at LCISD.
out. When asked what her most
One of our projects important piece of advice was, she
was about the said: “Do everything for the glory of
Titanic. We wrote God.” Wow.
and performed a Yes, do your very best. Yes, have
play about it, and intention in your actions. Yes, “just
we built models of do it.” Yes, think creatively, and yes,
the ship and dressed
in period costumes.
When we studied
Medieval Times, we
first met Mrs. Dunn in 3rd got to take a field trip to Odessa to
grade when I was in the G/T see a play at the Globe Theater. We
I (Gifted & Talented) Program at studied the stock market and made
Cooper North Elementary. The G/T models of the DNA molecule. We
Program was a place that allowed all looked forward to our once-a-
our creative sides to flourish and week time with Mrs. Dunn.
encouraged us to be innovative
and imaginative. It wasn’t until She had trained in Austin to be the
later that I realized Cooper’s G/T head of the program at Cooper,
program was awesome because the but we thought it was funny that
teacher in charge was so amazing, she always said, “When you are
and that was Mrs. Darla Dunn. teaching Gifted and Talented
students, you don’t have to be G/T
Mrs. Dunn would give us a theme yourself.” She was always humble,
for the year, like “Connections”,
20 Lubbock Senior Link
