Mrs Mandell (Danika Daggs)

Mrs Mandell has been teaching algebra and algebra II for almost 25 years here at Victor. She’s my teacher for algebra II and although I’ve only known her for a few months, I think she’s a really great teacher and person in general. 

 Mrs. Mandell is always there for her students when they need it. “I’m the mom of my students. I want to make sure everyone’s okay.” Apart from being a mother to her students, she is a mom of two children, a son named Dominic and a daughter named Jacey. 

A little bit more about her: she graduated from Geneseo in 2000, she is a big Jets fan (she participates in fantasy football too), and she enjoys cooking in her free time. 

If she hadn’t been a teacher, her second choice would’ve been a chef. She loves to cook, especially during Christmas break where she’ll often try out new recipes for her family to try. She plans to take more cooking classes and possibly cook at Wegmans when she retires. 

Her advice to maintain a work and life balance is to take time out of your day to do something for yourself. Before doing this, she had been tutoring eight kids at Fairport a week, on top of parenting and teaching and she realized it was too much. Now she often spends an hour or two reading a book, binge watching a show, or walking her dogs. 

The atmosphere of Mrs. Mandell’s room is welcoming and relaxing. Her room is personalized with pictures of her family and pets on almost every wall. In her words, “I want to be in a room that’s like I’m sitting inside my house and when I look around I see things that make me happy.” She also has a food bin in the back of the room where you can grab treats out of whenever you like. 

Mrs Mandell makes a point to spend time with her husband and kids regularly. She and her family often go to the movie theater, take walks on the Erie canal, go to festivals, and play board games together. They also go to smash rooms and driving ranges when stress is high. “I’m a real big fan of experience gifts and going to places and making memories.” 

Victor has positively affected her life and allowed her to make lifelong friends. One being Mr. Merit who has taught with her for 25 years at Victor and is like a brother to her. She is close with Mrs Knapp and Mrs. Merges too due to their mutual understanding of having older kids. Mrs. Harris was also her student teacher when her children were just infants. 

Mrs. Mandell’s biggest accomplishment is that six of her students have become math teachers because of her. It means a lot to her to have had such an impact on her students after one of her teachers made that impact on her. She chose to become a math teacher because of her math teacher, Mrs Incardona, who made it fun and enjoyable to go to class everyday. 

Ultimately, Mrs. Mandell is an all around inspirational and supportive teacher here at Victor and if you ever need math help, life advice, or snacks, she’s the person to go to.