These Days Are Those Days

Have you ever had a day where you felt like the most ineffective teacher on the planet, feeling like you should lock your door lest the teacher police come and haul you off for all your imagined teacher self-infractions?  Where everything you do feels wrong, feels like it's not good enough or you're headed in the completely wrong direction?
You know, one of those days?  Well, if you haven't had one of those days, well, let me tell you: they suck.  
I have had too many of those days in the last few months, feeling as if I am running full throttle, wheels spinning furiously, and getting absolutely nowhere.  If there is a cosmic quota for having these days, then I am sure I have filled it this school year and then some.  (My hope is that I can get some sort of cosmic rewards points for my extra days accumulated that I can trade in somewhere for better days in the future.  I'm sure there's a card I can get somewhere for this after giving someone lots of personal information.)
The reason these days for having those days described above is this: I had a large majority of my students chose not to do their final exam project.  I have been beating myself up over this so much I am surprised I don't have two black eyes.  I have been running mental circles trying to figure out what I did wrong, trying to determine what it was about the assignment that was so disengaging that allowed students to make that choice.  I still haven't quite figured it out; I have worn a nice circular rut in my mind trying.  I'm still working on it.
But I had to deal with the pressing fact that I needed that final, most recent evidence of their understanding.  I had to have it to see what they know, understand, and are able to do right now.  They tell me I have to fail them if they don't turn it in.  So, since we have two days until my grades are actually due, I decided to give them those two days to finish it.  Those that did their final project are getting opportunities to fix any I can statement at which they are not at mastery yet--they can write, draw, or talk it out to me in any fashion that is comfortable to them.  Students met these choices with a mixture of happiness, apathy, acceptance, denial, and anger.
I spent the day very conflicted. But, at the end of the day when I was cruising through my Edmodo notifications, I saw that I had one new reply to a post.  Clicking on the notification, I saw this comment made by a student:
"Thank you for taking the time to help all the students who are in need of assistance and who are failing the semester."
Amazing how one little comment can solve some of the conflicts in your head. Not all; just some.  But at least  I feel safe enough now to unlock my door.