Written on a sticky note stuck to the edge of my laptop are three phrases: Listen first; teach by example; be patient. These are three things I’ve learned as a school-based literacy coach. My notes on these simple but essential guidelines are a scaffold for the coaching I do. I wonder how coaches who are flung into this adult learning role without much preparation deal with the reactions of the teachers with whom they work. Many of us who coach have enduring memories of our first interactions with classroom teachers; indeed, our first early struggles are about as easy to forget as a bad case of stomach flu. Why, then, do so many education decision makers easily accept the idea that there exists a superhuman race