About+Our+Project

Shortly after the earthquake happened, most international schools in the Tokyo region closed. Almost all of them ended up having an extended spring break: the week of March 14 - 18, one week prior to the pre-planned spring break. During that week, most schools used elearning platforms to continue teaching and learning.

Students in Ms. Fish's grade 5 and 6 classes at the International School of the Sacred Heart had been working for much of the year on writing personal narratives. Ms. Fish then asked her students to write a personal narrative or Dear Diary entry about their experience. Students in grade 6 began to share their stories with their pen pals and as Ms. Fish read them, she was incredibly moved. These stories needed to be shared beyond simply the pen pals.

Students in Ms. Cofino's MYP Technology class at Yokohama International School had been developing their individual blogs all year. Ms. Cofino asked her students to share their experiences during the quake on their blog. Several students posted their stories and Ms. Cofino shared them on Twitter. People around the world began reading her students stories and leaving comments. Ms. Cofino realized these stories needed to be shared in a central place, with a wider audience.

Ms. Fish and Ms. Cofino both attended the EARCOS Teacher's Conference in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia from March 22 - 26, 2011. One evening Ms. Fish shared her students amazing stories with Ms. Cofino, right about the same time that the Quakebook project was getting started. Inspired by that idea, and the fantastic stories that students were submitting, Ms. Cofino and Ms. FIsh thought be wonderful for students across Tokyo, and possibly the rest of Japan, to share their stories with each other. Quakstories was born.

If you are a teacher, interested in joining this project with your students, please join here.

If you are a student who would like to submit a story (but you don't know if you teacher is a member of the project), please submit your story here.

All forms of media are welcome: writing, images, manga, video, songs. Anything produced by students can be contributed.