Three veteran teachers on the 7th-grade math team don’t want the responsibility of leading their weekly team meetings. But Meredith — a recent college graduate who just began teaching — volunteers for the assignment. The older teachers are mystified — and a bit put off by her eagerness. Meredith quickly steps into her new role and announces the agenda for the next meeting. “I’ll create a web page for us to use, and I’ll post the agenda there, too,” she says, as she taps the task into her phone, which is also her PDA.

Moments after assuming this leadership role, however, Meredith’s phone pings to indicate that she’s gotten a text message. She quickly shifts her attention from the meeting to her phone, laughs a little and texts back a response.

Now the older teachers glance at each other and nod knowingly. Here we go again, another new teacher to train.