This video is available as a NAESPA membership benefit or for a limited time as a conference attendee.
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Failing Your Way to Success: How STEAM Builds Resilient, Future-Ready Learners
Failure isn’t a flaw in the learning process—it is the process. Failure isn’t a flaw in the learning process—it’s a vital part of how we grow. In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore how STEAM education creates safe, supportive spaces for students to experience failure with empathy and purpose. These moments help develop resilience, perseverance, and the confidence to keep going—especially for students who learn and think differently. Using strategies from 50 Strategies for Teaching STEAM Skills, we’ll examine how to design learning environments where failure is seen as a necessary and valuable step toward success. Participants will leave with practical ways to foster academic risk-taking, celebrate progress over perfection, and help every student build the transferable skills they need to thrive in an uncertain future.
This talk was presented at:
2026 National ESEA Conference
February 2026
in
Denver, CO
For more information:
ontheballledu@gmail.com
Speakers
Kara Ball
An award-winning Professor of Education, STEM educator, author, and Academic Officer specializing in STEAM education and professional learning. Recipient of the Bezos Courage & Civility Award and a former State Teacher of the Year, as well as a National Teacher of the Year finalist.
Author of 50 Strategies for Teaching STEAM Skills. Led the development of a standalone K–5 STEAM program for the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) and collaborated with Johns Hopkins University to design a career-connected K–5 STEM curriculum for a large urban school district.
Currently serves as an Academic Officer and is completing doctoral research focused on gender inequity in STEM fields, with professional experience spanning classroom teaching, district leadership, curriculum development, and national professional learning.
ESEA Network
The National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators is dedicated to building the capacity of education professionals to provide disadvantaged children with a high quality education. Their ESEA Network website provides a host of resources to educators at all levels.
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admin@eseanetwork.org | 800-256-6452
532 North Franklin Street | Fort Bragg, CA 95437
About Us
The National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators (formerly the National Title I Association) is dedicated to building the capacity of education professionals to provide disadvantaged children with a high quality education. Their ESEA Network website provides a host of resources to educators at all levels.
Connect with Us
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