How do I lead as a principal when I miss teaching?

You carry every child, teacher, and parent in the building now, and somewhere in all that responsibility the thing you loved, standing in front of a class, has been gone for years. That ache is real. You did not stop being a teacher because you wanted to. You stepped up, and the classroom was the price. But you did not leave teaching so much as widen it. Every teacher you support reaches classrooms you could never stand in alone. When you shield them, guide them, make the school a place where good teaching can happen, you are teaching at a scale you never could from one room. The heart is the same. The reach is larger. Still, do not let the thing you love disappear entirely. Find small ways back into it, a guest lesson now and then, time in classrooms not to judge but to be near the work. Remember, on the hard days, that you serve those kids too, just from a different seat. Lead from the teacher you still are.