Team Four doesn't brain-"storm"--We brain-"tsunami"

I always feel sorry for people newly-introduced to Team Four. From an outsider's perspective, we look like a high-functioning, well-adjusted, collaborative group of educators ("Wait," interrupts my friend Tyler, "by outsider do you mean outside of an English-speaking nation or outside the atmospheric-boundaries of Planet Earth?"), but inside our little world, that perception adjusts fairly quickly. "I'll say," remarked our friend Roxanne who recently watched Kelly re-deal the same hand of cards during our weekly Euchre Lunch FIVE times before getting it right.

Our intentions are always good. They just tend to occasionally be long-winded and irrelevant. Take our recent discussion about this year's New York State test. No longer timed, we wondered what to do with the students who would be held in silent (yeah-right) captivity while others took longer to finish. Perhaps one room could be designated to be the work room for students who were carefully taking their time. Great idea! "But how will we know when other rooms are finished?" asked Kelly. Good point. We weren't, according to the slew of state-induced paperwork, suppose to interrupt testing sites. A technological marvel, Kelly suggested Google Messaging one another. The rest of us looked at her blankly. I still have an aol account. Geri is still upset that Microsoft limited her Word Art options. And Rachel is threatening to flashdrive all of her folders because the school is taking away our hard-drives.

Taking a break from banging my head against the cupboard door in between Rachel handing me cookies, I suggested another option. "We could try those tin-can phones." Inspired, Geri jumped in. "How about we leave our windows open and we could send messages via flag?" Morse code was ruled out as too loud, invalidating our signed New York State paperwork. Smoke signals were also scratched off as an option as we were pretty sure that fire regulations would frown upon that strategy. Kelly, exasperated, sighed and rolled her eyes. Rachel, our team leader, the one we look to in times of trouble, finally resolved the issue. "How about we just text each other?" If only all the problems of the world could be solved this easily!