Reply To: Your teachers were wrong.

The Gemara in Shabbos 21b says ??????? ???? ????? ????. I believe this means that they lit from it for eight days.

Whether you learn that they conserved the oil and only used 1/8 of their supply every day or whether you learn that they used the full amount on the first day but it did not get used up, I believe it is quite clear from the Gemara that they lit every day for all eight days, which leads me to logically conclude that it did not, in fact, burn for eight days straight.