back in my university years, we had a teacher that taught all his courses in the lab. he used to go in, explain something for 15 minutes then the rest is practicing on the computers.

the best part was: he never gave us final exams. it was our choice with a final project and an exam. we surely picked the final project.

this is how programming classes should be taught. he took this approach because he was himself a programmer and knew how much practicing was important . Respect for these teachers.