"Chalk" – An Inside Look at the Teaching Profession

Inspired by the grim statistic “fifty percent of America’s teachers quit within their first three years,” the independent film “Chalk” is a clever mock documentary about novice high school teachers and a newly promoted assistant principal as they struggle with their chosen careers. An insecure history teacher, an abrasive female gym coach, a self-promoting philosophy instructor, and a former teacher out of her element as a strict administrative disciplinarian, laugh and cry their way through the school year.

Austin, Texas-based writer-director-producer Mike Akel uses a mixture of professional actors and real students (from some of the classes he has taught) to take a quirky inside look at teachers. His two hand-held cameras might be hiding behind a bookshelf to eavesdrop on an intimate conversation between two friends or peeking through a partially closed door during outrageous student-teacher interactions.

In a Q&A session after the screening — which attracted dozens of teachers to Central Florida’s Enzian Theater — Akel and actor Chris Mass (also an off-screen teacher) fielded questions about this unusual style of filmmaking.

“As a real-life teacher, I did day-to-day research,” Akel says. “As for the shooting style, I wanted viewers to feel like they’re right there and the only way to capture this is to use hand-held cameras and let the actors improvise most of the lines to produce a visceral, frenetic feel.”

Although teachers in the audience griped about classes of 30 or more students, “Chalk” depicts sparsely populated classrooms and hallways. Acknowledging that this one element might lack authenticity, Akel revealed that the students in “Chalk” are real students with no acting experience who gave up a month of their summer to work on this low-budget film.

So if the onscreen teachers can’t handle classes of only 8-10 students while real teachers juggle dozens at a time — well — that’s just part of the fun.

When the brazen gym coach develops a romantic interest in the introverted history teacher, Akel wastes little screen time waiting for the relationship to blossom. An amusing dream sequence lets the audience know in no uncertain terms that beneath his shy exterior, the history teacher returns her feelings.

“The dream sequence has different pacing to show that it’s a dream,” Mass says. “But we also wanted to establish that the feelings are real. We thought the sequence helped move the romance along a little bit. Actually the scene started as just some funny improvising that we decided to use later on.”

Mass shares the screen with fellow actors Janelle Schremmer, Troy Schremmer, and Shannon Haragan. A SomeDaySoon Production, “Chalk” is screening at film festivals around the country. Your assignment: Watch for it to open at a theater near you. Teachers (and all former students everywhere) should love it.

Screened March 29, 2006

Florida Film Festival

East Coast Premiere

Copyright 2006 Leslie Halpern

Central Florida entertainment writer Leslie Halpern is the author of more than 1,600 articles in trade and consumer magazines. She wrote the books “Reel Romance. The Lovers’ Guide to the 100 Best Date Movies” (Taylor Trade Publishing), which reviews date movies for couples and suggests romantic ideas inspired by these films, and “Dreams on Film: The Cinematic Struggle Between Art and Science” (McFarland & Company), an analysis of representations of sleeping and dreaming in the movies. Both books are available from her website at: http://home.roadrunner.com/~lesliehalpern

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Medical Tools Sometimes Left Inside Patients After Surgery: Three Ways To Avoid Becoming A Statistic

Fortunately, it happens infrequently. That’s little comfort to the one in 5,000 surgical patients who end up with medical tools left inside of them after an operation.

Numerous strict procedures are in place in most hospitals to minimize the risk of losing track of surgical instruments during a procedure. Nevertheless, the numbers of these instances are believed to be on the rise worldwide.

It’s difficult to pin down the numbers of cases of medical tools being left in patients’ bodies after operations. This is because there are few or no national or international, standardized methods or requirements for disclosing such information publicly.

Instead, it’s often up to individual surgeons and hospitals how to record and whether to divulge to potential patients such cases of “lost” surgical instruments. Most choose not to make it widely available. The result is a public that is largely unaware of the possible risks of going home after surgery with medical tools inside.

Hundreds of thousands of operations are performed daily across the US alone. A vast majority are performed safely and with due diligence.

It is a very small percentage of patients that experience mistakes by physicians. This includes having surgical instruments sewn up in their bodies.

Every hospital in North America, in fact, has strong policies in place to prevent this. The most important one, which is very easy to administer and monitor, is the inventory policy.

Surgeons and/or the nurses who assist them must take a detailed inventory of every medical tool to be used in a procedure. They must then re-count and account for each one of those surgical instruments after the procedure. In theory, any missing medical tools require should lead to follow up investigation.

However, mistakes can and do occur. Many doctors concur that even just one mistake is one too many.

Sometimes surgeons realize their mistake shortly after stitching up the patient. This almost always necessitates extra diagnostic tests like x-ray or ultrasound. It may even lead to having to undo sutures or make new incisions to find and/or remove the missing medical tool. The result is longer-than-anticipated surgery times and extended hospital stays.

In rare cases, the missing surgical instrument gets overlooked altogether. Post-op patients are simply sent home to recover.

Instead, they develop recurrent infections, fevers and chronic pain. Sometimes they end up with lacerations, punctures or tears in organs or tissue from the medical tool. When this occurs, permanent damage is a possibility.

In the rarest of cases, patients may suffer from unexplained illnesses and pain for years. Unfortunately, depending on the type of surgical instrument and the location it ends up, it may not be detected by x-ray or ultrasound.

The patient may be written off by the medical community as a chronic complainer or as having a mental illness. They are sometimes misdiagnosed as clinically depressed.

They may also be diagnosed with an illness that is difficult to verify, like fibromyalgia or irritable bowel syndrome. The emotional and physical toll on such patients can be tremendous.

Surgical patients have minimal control over what happens during an operation. This is particularly true in cases where a patient undergoes general anesthesia for the procedure.

Instead, those who are contemplating or planning a surgery should plan ahead. Taking steps to prevent the possibility of a medical tool being left behind can include:

1) Ask for statistics/records: Granted, these can be difficult to obtain. Even if you ask the right questions of the right people, you may still be denied the information you are looking for.

However, you have the right as a consumer to ask questions, even if it annoys someone. Call your hospital’s records department and ask if you can have access to their medical malpractice statistics. Ask in particular about cases of surgical instruments being left inside of patients.

Ask the same questions of your surgeon, too. Your surgeon may have a better personal track record than the hospital in general.

2) Find out what procedure your hospital uses to minimize the risk of losing track of surgical instruments: Some hospitals have implemented state-of-the-art bar code technology to prevent the misplacement of medical tools.

With this system, all surgical instruments are scanned by bar code into a computer prior to surgery. Surgical instruments may also then be counted manually as well. The medical tools are then re-scanned after the procedure. Computers often catch errors that humans miss.

3) Be your own advocate: If you experience unexplained pain, re-curing fever or infections or other health problems post-surgery, make a fuss. Insist that your doctor(s) do more thorough testing.

Specifically mention the possibility that you have a medical tool/surgical instrument lodged in your body. Sometimes all it takes not to have your complaints written off is persistence.

Surgical Tools, Inc. is a traditional, supplier-based company that offers the leading brands of surgical instruments and medical tools.

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The Pros & Cons of Operating a Chain Restaurant

If you think operating a chain restaurant is going to be a

piece of cake, you need to think again. Sure, it can offer

you the chance to have a successful business but you are

going to have to work at it too. In many ways, operating a

chain restaurant can be more stressful than setting up your

own business. Not only do you have to keep your customers

happy, but you have to keep the corporation happy too. Many

people want a chain restaurant because they know consumers

will be excited to come in. This is often true, but it

depends on the particular restaurant you are talking about.

There isn’t any easy answer to this question, and you will

have to look inside of yourself to determine if it is or

not. It can be much easier than trying to build up a

customer base though. You will already have a product to

offer that is in demand. You can depend on the marketing

tactics of the entire franchise to carry you along. Once you

get people into your restaurant you can keep them coming

back by offering the quality that they have come to expect.

However, there may come a time when your particular chain

restaurant experiences negative publicity. They can have a

huge impact on your business because the media takes such

issues and sensationalizes them. Even though it may not be

your particular business that is involved it will reflect on

your image. Think about the Taco Bell rats in New York City

and the finger in Wendy’s chili issues that have come up.

These images definitely make a person lose their appetite

for a while and you can see a significant drop in business

because of it.

Many people are afraid to start their own business because

they have read plenty of material that tells then more than

half fail. While these statistics are true, don’t let them

prevent you from following your dreams. That statistic also

means that half of them didn’t fail – and you have a good

chance of being in that group since you are carefully doing

research instead of jumping in right away.

Even though you will have a steady flow of customers, you

need to take a look at your overhead. The amount of money

that your business earns isn’t important. The amount of it

that falls into the category of profit is what matters. Are

you going to make enough to pay for the chain restaurant and

to earn enough to keep you happy?

You will find the cost of a chain restaurant is going to be

more expensive than starting one on your own. You will be

paying for the exclusive rights to having that business

name. On the other hand, lenders are more willing to offer

you the funding to start up a chain business than your own.

Statistically, there is less risk of the business failing if

it is a known business entity that is thriving in various

other locations. Some chain restaurants even having

financing available through them so you don’t have to work

with an outside lender.

Some restaurant owner’s are very disappointed with a chain

restaurant image. They feel that they lose their

individuality in the process. You will be very limited in

advertising and ways that you manage your business. You may

have to provide specific types of uniforms and a specific

type of layout for the design of the business. You won’t be

able to decorate it to suit your tastes.

If you are serious about operating your own restaurant, you

really need to discover which is a better option for you.

Cover all the bases and see which one comes out in your

favor. Many people are happy and successful operating their

own business. Others aren’t, and do very well when they are

part of a chain restaurant. One isn’t necessarily better

than the other so take your time making this important

decision.

Patricia Farnham – Restaurant industry veteran, owner/operator, author and enthusiast. She recently put her considerable expertise (gained from many years of managing other peoples restaurants), to the test. She purchased a failing operation and turned it around quickly.

If you’re considering starting your own restaurant, or buying an existing operation, there are vital concepts you need to know to make it profitable. Check out her opinions regarding opening a restaurant on her website.

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