When I used to observe sample lessons from teacher candidates, I always watched for something that was not written into the lesson plan. I watched for presence. Not performance. Not volume. Not charisma in the showy sense. Presence. Sometimes the lesson itself was not the strongest part of the interview. The objective might have needed tightening. The pacing might have been uneven. The materials might have been ordinary. Yet, there were moments when a candidate walked into th
