Meet the Hopscotch Team
Teacher + Musician duo with a dream
to make learning enjoyable for all ages
“We love what we do! It is incredible to see the confidence and joy as kids learn through song and enjoy the process. Thanks for your continual kindness and support!”
Joanna Pace
Joanna handles the educational and visual side of Hopscotch - collaboration, market research, and working with animators. She is currently taking a break from teaching to get her masters’ degree. She loves reading, making friends, being outdoors, exploring her new city, and spending time with family.
Matt Pace
Matt is the head songwriter, music producer, co-creator, and YouTube specialist for Hopscotch. Outside of Hopscotch, he enjoys playing sports (most recently ice hockey), writing musicals, and seeing shows. View more of his work at: https://www.mattpacemusic.com/
It all started when…
Joanna was looking for a video to use in her lesson plan on continents for her second grade class in 2017. She was hoping for something with music to help her kids with memorization. At the time, there wasn’t much to be found, and what was found wasn’t that fun to listen to. Joanna went home and asked her husband, Matt, if he would write a song to help kids learn the continents. He agreed - a little reluctantly, saying children’s music “wasn’t really his thing.” (Maybe we should be glad for it - this enabled Matt to re-imagine what kids’ music can sound like!)
Well, the students loved it, and other teachers and classes in the school did as well! He wrote a few more songs for the classes, including skip counting songs. As we thought about our visual learners, it seemed like a good idea to add some animation. We found some talented and generous animators to do the first few on a very tight budget, and they exceeded all our expectations.
We knew we had something exciting in our hands. We were thrilled by what we had come up with and certain that others were in need of the same sorts of materials we had been creating. So, naturally, next came the question - how to share these videos with others? With the complexity of big file transfers, YouTube seemed like the way forward. As we continued, we were further convinced of our platform decisions. With YouTube being free and accessible, we realized our videos had the opportunity to reach anyone regardless of age, location, or economic background. And now being able to listen for free on streaming services, our content is ready to help people everywhere learn!
Thank you for your continued support as we grow!