Hi there!
Classroom Composers is a team of two music teachers, Kevin Hoff and Jessica Frank, that are based out of Oceanside, California. Between the two of us, we have experience teaching 3-6 general music, elementary 4/5 band/strings, and middle school band/strings/guitar.
Hi there!
Classroom Composers is a team of two music teachers, Kevin Hoff and Jessica Frank, that are based out of Oceanside, California. Between the two of us, we have experience teaching 3-6 general music, elementary 4/5 band/strings, and middle school band/strings/guitar.
Hi there!
Classroom Composers is a team of two music teachers, Kevin Hoff and Jessica Frank, that are based out of Oceanside, California. Between the two of us, we have experience teaching 3-6 general music, elementary 4/5 band/strings, and middle school band/strings/guitar.
We teach at Title I schools with a significant amount of free and reduced lunch students. The majority of our students use school instruments and private lessons are a distant fantasy. Finally, our classes often are large (50+ students) with mixed instrumentation.
Our store grew out of many years of creating our own curriculum to meet the needs of our students. We began hearing, “you should sell this stuff on Teachers Pay Teachers” from colleagues and eventually we decided to put up some of our material to sell. Everything that we sell in our store has been used at some point in our classes and has undergone rigorous student testing. Our store is the greatest hits of our instructional materials. What you see in our store is the best of our best.
Our Mission
Why should a music teacher compose the music for your music program? It’s simple really. Because they know what your students need.
Don’t get us wrong, there are incredible pieces of music that have been written for elementary, middle, and high school bands and orchestras to play. Many of these pieces are loved by students and appreciated by audiences. But most of them are missing a very key component: they are not composed through a teacher’s lens.
There is no judgment here. Band and orchestra composers are great at what they do, often writing expertly to fit the ability levels of the students that will play their music. But ability level should not be the only consideration.
Compositions should also be aligned with your pedagogy so they can be perfectly timed tools to support the growth and musicianship of your students.
Now we know what you’re thinking: a piece usually loses that certain artful quality the more academic in nature it gets. Enter the “Classroom Composer.”
This may seem too demanding of an undertaking: to compose quality music that is academic, easy to align to your teaching practice, and accessible for students while retaining that certain artfulness embodied by the modern band and orchestra masterworks.
But here is where we submit to you that it can be done. Composition is a skill that some teachers choose to develop alongside their teaching practice and this kind of teacher becomes a double threat; someone who is able to both write wonderful music inspired by iconic composers and guide a composition through a teaching lens.
In an endeavor to bring this kind of composition to all of you, we have accepted this undertaking, and we can’t wait for you to see what we’ve written.
Fun Facts
- We are married and share three classrooms.
- We have visited all 50 states, including three cross-country road trips.
- Kevin has won awards for his Lego creations.
- Jessica used to be on TV frequently while working for a local newscast.
- We love Buc-ee's. You know if you know.
