the learning curve, from my experience, vary a lot from one person to another.
If I take myself as an example, I jumped right away in learning parts of songs that I liked. I was able to play many different riffs early on but didn't put anytime on theory at all. That was a very big mistake since I later found out people who had a better grasp of theory were learning new stuff faster than I did.
A good teacher will balance both theory and practical application. Spending time on both will make the theory a lot more fun to learn and you won't get frustrated about not playing. I suggest you tell your teacher right away that your wish is to learn how to play song early on. Bring some example songs you really like and those you'd like to play. I can't tell you how he or she is going to react but I'd like to think your choices will be reflected your different sessions.
I hope you'll enjoy your lessons and I'm sure you'll find tons of lessons on guitartricks.com to complement your teacher's classes.