French: for those who aren't

Because I attend an international school, only about half the people in my class are native french speakers. The rest are British, Chinese, German, Australian, etc. Although I probably speak the least french in the school, not everyone is at the level of typical french student. These students have a separate french class that follows approximately the same curriculum but at a slower pace. The class is five hours a week, more than any other of my classes but theatre. 

The teacher usually writes notes for us on the board, dictates, or combines the two. I'm much, much better at listening than I was the first couple weeks of school, so I can usually separate the words even if I don't understand them. However, I still make a lot of mistakes, and my notes usually look something like this <--

When I have time (which doesn't seem to be often), I try to translate and organize the notes. Some sentences are beyond comprehension and I have to leave them out of the final draft. The next photo shows some that actually turned out well. Words I wasn't clear on at the time are written on the right, so I can quickly read through it again.

In addition to the book's we are given to read, the professor gives us quite a few texts to go along with the lesson. Below is the first I received and one of the few I've finished translating. Many have been started and then set aside to do something more urgent. Sometimes the passages were just used for discussion that day, and by the time I go home and translate everything it's too late.
About once a week there is homework for the class: prepare a verbal response, read part of a book, write an essay, etc. Sometimes I can do it, and other times I let it slide. It's not imposible to get out of school at 6pm, spend 3 hours translating text, an hour writing in english and an hour translating back to french, eat with my family and get up in time for school the next day, but....
Besides, sometimes I only have a vague idea what the homework is.

I'm not the only one who doesn't always do their homework. One day I shared my book with the Russian boy next to me and the teacher asked him (in French, of course), "Stanislav, have you bought the novel?"
"Ah no, Madame." he replied.
"Why not?"
"It is... not interesting."
However, this is the exception. Most students are very serious about their work.

In a few months this will probably be a very useful class for me. After reading a passage the class asks for clarification on any unknown words, and the professor explains phrases that might be confusing. I don't ask specific questions because it would take most of the lesson time, but hearing other people's is helpful.