All About Me
Greetings, my name is Janine Cortes. My family and I currently live in Staten Island, New York. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, attending the NYC Department of Education Public School system from Pre-K-12th grade. Having a rewarding public school experience as a child helped me become the teacher and person I am today.
From a very young age, I always enjoyed the concept of knowledge and education. Fostering each day and turning it into a lesson learned. I would be ecstatic to play âschoolâ pretending to be a teacher with my family members and friends. It was something I was always inclined to do. My dream as a child was to become a teacher and make a difference in someoneâs life. Growing up, I always enjoyed and took pride in educating and helping others about something I had prior knowledge of. I always found a way to differentiate and support others when it came to furthering academic or social-emotional knowledge. To this day, I consider myself a lifelong learner who strives to help others to the best of my ability.
After attending Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, New York, I furthered my education by attending colleges and obtaining degrees. I attended colleges such as Kingsborough Community College, Brooklyn College, School of Education, and Touro College, Graduate School of Education. With this valuable knowledge and education, I obtained numerous degrees, such as an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts, a Bachelor of Arts in Teaching Early Childhood Education, Special Education, and a Concentration in Health and Nutrition Sciences, as well as a Masters of Science in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
I am certified in Special Education (Birth-2), Early Childhood Education (Birth-2), and English as a New Language (Pre-K-12). Before I started working for the District 31 Pre-K Center in 2019, I worked as a New York City Department of Education ENL teacher at P.S. 170 elementary school in Brooklyn, New York, where I received tenure in that license. I also worked at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York, as a Continuing Education Instructor, College for Kids Instructor, a TESOL Instructor, and an ACT/SAT Test Prep Instructor. In the summer of 2019, I switched my teaching license to Early Childhood Education (Birth-2) and started working for the District 31 Pre-K Center. During the school year 2019-2020, I worked as a general education 3K classroom teacher along with a paraprofessional. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NYC Department of Education switched to remote learning in March 2020. During the school year 2020-2021, I worked as a fully remote 3K and Pre-K general education teacher alongside a remote paraprofessional. Currently, I am working in the school building as a 3K and Pre-K partner teacher. I enjoy working as a partner teacher for many reasons, such as being able to teach in each classroom and having the opportunity to learn about all the students and their individual personalities. I am determined to teach each student and reach their individual goals. I am also fortunate to work closely alongside each teacher, sharing ideas, strategies, and methodologies.
Working at the District 31 Pre-K Center has been an extremely rewarding experience. Each day I come to work, I am prepared and ecstatic to teach a diverse student body where I make sure to incorporate each studentâs unique goals, needs, strengths, and interests into account, as well as create instructional hands-on activities that involve and accommodate all students. I am ecstatic to work with such wonderful colleagues and administration team. I have a strong commitment to teaching students as well as demonstrating strong communication and leadership skills while collaborating with other teachers and team members.