Hopatcong Reading Specialist Praised as 'Rock Star'

Hopatcong Borough Schools says Jamie Gambuzza is a "teacher who rocks."

Gambuzza, a reading specialist and academic skills teacher at Hudson Maxim School, has brought the district's remediation program to new heights, according to Superintendent of Schools Cynthia Randina.

"She is truly passionate about teaching, making teaching students to read her top priority," Randina said in a district statement. "She spends countless hours thinking of different ways to help students learn to read, as she recognizes that each student has different needs.

"On a professional level, she is what every principal needs and treasures within a building. She acts as a support to her fellow colleagues, guiding them with reading techniques and strategies. She serves as an active member of our Intervention and Referral Services Committee and strives very hard to make improvements within our school."

Gambuzza was praised for placing importance on having staffers work as a team to improve the overall academic and reading needs of students and for researching different strategies to help both teachers and students.

"She assesses needs by using various data collection programs and can produce a report showing student progress in seconds," Randina said. "One would want to spend hours in Mrs. Gambuzza’s classroom and sometimes students do not want to leave to return to their own classrooms. Her literacy rich classroom is filled with student activity, whether it is students reading on their bean bag chairs, videotaping their reading progress or working one on one with Mrs. Gambuzza using her newly implemented program within her classroom, The Daily Five."

The picture the superintendent paints of Gambuzza is of an education professional who truly enjoys her job.

"She can be witnessed laughing and having fun with her students," she said, adding that a lot of the fun comes from creative approaches she has to making anything into a reading lesson.  Randina pointed to a recent pajama collection drive that she turned into a reading-related activity.

"For every pair of pajamas that our school community donated, Scholastic donated a book to a needy child," said Randina. "I wish all of you could have witnessed the excitement on Mrs. Gambuzza’s face when our 100th pair of pajamas was sent into Hudson Maxim School.

"It is this enthusiasm and dedication to students that makes her absolutely rock!"