District names Win Saw ‘teacher of the year’

More than 20 years ago, Win Saw accepted his first teaching job at Crescenta Valley High School when he hadn’t yet graduated from UC Santa Barbara. Since then, he has taught classes from entry-level math to second-year calculus and now, after more than two decades as an instructor, he’s been named Glendale Unified’s Teacher of the Year.

Although his classes can present students with difficult concepts, Saw said it’s common for them to grasp how much he loves the subject within five to 10 minutes of sitting in his class.

“I get excited about doing math,” he said. “I love the fact that math is the most hated subject. I love that challenge. I think it’s completely the opposite — I’m going to spend every day proving that it can be easy. Part of my mission is to share that love and passion for math in hoping that they can see that.”

His approach is to teach students to think critically to solve problems, find patterns and adapt to find a solution — a skill he hopes they’ll apply to their chosen careers.

“The biggest buy-in — this is useful. It can be very interesting,” he said. “If you put time into it, you can see things clearly in it.”

The son of two teachers, he didn’t intend to follow in his parents’ footsteps. It wasn’t until Saw was in college that he realized, “That’s what I wanted to do.”

At age 11, Saw and his family moved to Los Angeles from Burma, now Myanmar. When Saw told his parents he wanted to teach, they told him about their comparison of the profession in the two countries, and initially questioned his choice.

“The first thing they said was, ‘It’s dangerous.’ They said the kids are really rough. They don’t respect teachers the same way as back in the [home] country,” Saw recalled. “Here you have two teachers that are discouraging me being a teacher. That proves the point that we don’t view, as a society, education the same way as other cultures do.”

Glendale school officials will recognize Saw during next Thursday’s annual State of the Schools breakfast — an event that brings together local educators, community and business leaders. That morning, with his mother as his guest, he plans to celebrate teachers.

“I want to show her the brighter side of things. We just don’t celebrate enough in the teaching profession. What we hear from the media is not always positive. It’s such a noble profession and I don’t think people say it enough,” said Saw, who is in his 21st year of teaching at Crescenta Valley High.

“There’s a lot of tradition here and loyalty and I love being here,” he said of the school.

Four teachers on campus once sat in his class themselves — Hudson Gossard, Whitney Katzer, Jenica Wozniak and Anna De Kruys.

“Half of them still call me Mr. Saw,” he said with a chuckle.

For past and current students, Saw said he appreciates their open minds and sees each day as a chance to make an impact on their lives.

“I look at each day as an opportunity to shape their minds in a positive way… you can create an environment that fosters the love of learning and teaching them to be lifelong learners,” he said. “I love the fact that we have freedom to do that.”