High school? We can do this, right?

Well...we survived the first semester of high school. It wasn't a cake walk but it definitely wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Jake adapted rather easily and found his safe places and people quickly. That was what I was most worried about. Before he had always had the nurse to go to or the principal in middle school. High school is so different and I thought it would be a struggle for him. It was, just not in the way I thought. He liked most of his teachers and classes and after some organizational issues were dealt with he settled in nicely. We did have a problem with one teacher and it was unfortunate because it was the one class Jake was looking forward to. Shop. From the beginning of this class Jake struggled, mainly with the multitude of worksheets that were thrown at the students within the first two months. By October the class average was in the 60% range and Jake was failing. Not because he didn't know the material but because of the shear volume he was receiving. Worksheets are his bane to begin with but this was crazy. I attempted to find a happy medium with the teacher but he seemed to not want to work with me. I then went to Jake's caseworker and asked her to help me communicate our needs to the teacher and still did not get what I wanted. I wanted to be able to say if Jake needed extra time to complete a worksheet and I wanted the teacher to email me updates about Jake every Friday so that I could check for understanding and get back with the teacher. I ended being the one who had to email the teacher every week and I finally just gave up. Why? Because at this point the worksheets were no more and Jake was doing hands on stuff and getting an A for those items. Jake and I talked about it seriously a few times and finally decided that this class and the teacher in particular were not for us. So I asked his caseworker to pull him from the class for the second semester. It wasn't worth Jake's GPA or self esteem to keep him in a class where he was not going to be successful. He did well in his other classes, even setting the curve for Earth Science in his grade. He is active in two clubs, Science/Weather Club and Robotics Club and is starting his A+ tutoring this semester at the elementary school. He has an English teacher he adores and is interested in the subject for the first time in forever! He has also found his safe places and teachers and I couldn't be happier. I've been very proud of him stepping outside his comfort zone and starting to advocate for himself this year with his teachers. I know he will still struggle with it, probably his whole life, but it's a step in the right direction. We did decide to have him take gym during the summer since the classes are so big. There's less chance of him having issues with the other students (his buttons are very easy to push) and it's a shorter time period. He's just excited that he will have more time to take electives during the school year because of it. I'm so glad he loves school and learning because if he didn't this would be much harder on both of us. Jake continues to go to therapy but not as often as he used to. He just needs that word vomit time but as he finds more outlets to do so he needs a professional less and less. He also is seeing a specialist for Tourette's who is helping him deal with his disability with medicine and other suggestions. The medicine is tricky because Jake doesn't like to take pills but knows he needs something so it's a work in progress. I am looking forward to second semester and seeing how he grows and adjusts to some new classes and opportunities but I know he will do well and kick butt at the same time!