What happens when you give teachers the power to identify their own problems and work together to solve them?

In this episode, Joanna Burt-Kinderman and Adam Riazi from the Mountaineer Mathematics Master Teacher (M3T) network share how they've built a statewide system that puts teacher agency at the center of professional learning. Unlike traditional top-down professional development, M3T empowers 32 teacher leaders across 27 West Virginia districts to form local improvement teams, identify classroom "bugs" that frustrate them, and test solutions collaboratively.

From addressing students' "first step questions" to building productive struggle, Joanna and Adam reveal how small, teacher-driven changes can have outsized impact when supported by a network of peers. They discuss the challenges of scaling teacher leadership, the importance of compensating educators for their expertise, and why this approach is fundamentally about retention—keeping brilliant teachers in the classroom where they belong.

Key Insights

• Beyond Delivery: Why learning isn't a "deliverable construct" and what teachers actually hunger to learn.
• The Power of Bugs: How identifying common classroom frustrations leads to practical, tested solutions.
• Jazz, Not Classical: Why teaching requires improvisation within a framework, not rigid adherence to a script.
• Network Effects: How teachers across rural districts collaborate in real-time to improve their practice.
• Teacher Retention Through Agency: Why giving educators ownership over their professional growth keeps them in classrooms.
• Scaling with Integrity: How M3T maintains teacher choice while building statewide coherence.

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