Yeah. It has a very strong "and then everyone clapped" vibe to it. But even if the teacher "grew very quiet" in actual fact there can be many reason behind tha

Yeah. It has a very strong "and then everyone clapped" vibe to it. But even if the teacher "grew very quiet" in actual fact there can be many reason behind that. The story as told tries to imply that they realised that they were wrong somehow for doing these presentations. It is also possible that they went quiet because they realised that there is no point in asking whatever they wanted to ask under such a hostile interrogation. It is also lovely to note that the supposed interaction happened with "someone who gave a presentation at an education conference". I guess that someone must have been born with the skills to present, because they (according to the story) think very lowly about the idea of practicing it.