Gareth Manning

Education systems designer building AI tools for education.

gareth.manning@gmail.com · garethmanning.com · linkedin.com/in/gareth-manning-a404b387

I am an independent builder of AI tools for education. Behind the tools sit more than twenty years designing learning systems across 27 countries — international, rural, nomadic, shipboard, online, and school-startup contexts, with students from over 50 countries. That fieldwork left one conviction: the hardest unsolved problem in education is dispositional — helping people develop the self-awareness and self-regulation needed to learn, grow, and act effectively.

Location
Budapest, Hungary
Citizenship
Canada · Ireland · UK
Focus
AI tools for education · learning systems · curriculum & assessment architecture · wellbeing & agency

Selected projects

Hippo · Live · An AI-assisted app that turns taught lessons into flashcards and live class quizzes — retrieval practice from the material teachers already have.

Strive · Live pilot · A habit and agency app for schools: students build real-life wellbeing habits alongside their classmates.

Education Agent Skills · Open source · An open library of educator skills for human and machine use — 20 domains, 165 skills.

Dream-to-Reality Programme · Implemented & evolving · A seven-stage experiential PBL framework in regenerative entrepreneurship, implemented at REAL School Budapest and documented in the evolving D2R handbook.

Wellbeing & Agency · Designed & taught · A whole-school wellbeing programme centred on self-awareness, self-regulation, agency, and belonging.

Global Impact Diploma · Core design team · An international school collaboration around student impact, agency, portfolios, and exhibitions — co-designed the competency framework and assessment approach.

Experience

Co-Principal & Lead Designer

Nov 2024–Jun 2026

REAL School Budapest

A progressive school startup in Budapest; led whole-school design across curriculum, assessment, wellbeing, and culture.

  • Built the ANSWER Framework — a whole-school competency and assessment architecture connecting school purpose to domains, competencies, developmental progressions, learning targets, planning, evidence, rubrics, and reporting.
  • Designed and led the Dream-to-Reality Programme (D2R), an implemented and evolving K–8 framework in regenerative entrepreneurship with a year-long capstone where students launch real ventures. REAL School Budapest was named Top 10 for Environmental Action in the World’s Best School Prizes 2026; D2R was central to the school’s entry.
  • Designed the whole-school wellbeing programme centred on self-awareness, self-regulation, agency, and belonging; taught the wellbeing class, piloting Strive with students.
  • Led school-wide professional learning on PBL, assessment, and practical AI; established PLCs and peer-observation structures; built custom GPTs for curriculum, assessment, UDL, pedagogy, and accreditation.
  • Rewrote school values and helped translate regeneration, entrepreneurship, and wellbeing into governance, curriculum, and school culture.

Lead Educator & PBL Designer

Aug 2022–Nov 2024

REAL School Budapest

The earlier role at the same school, before moving into whole-school leadership.

  • Designed real-world entrepreneurship and sustainability projects.
  • Built shared rubrics and led Headrush LMS adoption as the school’s assessment backbone.
  • Supported shared PBL design and greater consistency across teaching teams.

Faculty — Social Studies & Humanities

Jul 2021–May 2022

Class Afloat

A school aboard a tall ship, crossing the Atlantic twice in one academic year.

  • Taught global geography, political science, sociology, anthropology, and world history — Cold War to emerging-technology futures — aboard a tall ship across two transatlantic crossings.
  • Guided student-led regeneration-focused projects and port-based fieldwork across 10+ countries.
  • Led the Student Advisory Council.

Educator

Jul 2018–Jun 2021

THINK Global School

A nomadic high school where the educator role spanned learning facilitation, advisory, assessment, experiential learning, student life, and programme development.

  • Designed interdisciplinary, culturally responsive projects with community partners across seven countries — China, Oman, Costa Rica, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Australia, and Chile.
  • Created the Excellence Table self- and peer-assessment framework, adopted school-wide.
  • Mentored personal, mastery, and service-learning projects; led expeditions and advisory groups.
  • Adapted instruction across 12 time zones online during COVID.

Department Chair & Teacher

Aug 2013–Jun 2018

Pacific American School, Hsinchu, Taiwan

An American-curriculum international school in Taiwan.

  • Chaired Social Studies; revised assessment policies and ESLRs; supported teachers and led departmental curriculum and assessment work.
  • Introduced AP Capstone and co-led schoolwide Design Thinking integration.
  • Designed and taught Innovator’s Space (a full-year design thinking course) and Advanced Debate; taught AP Seminar, AP Comparative Government, AP US Government, AP Human Geography, and Honors World History.
  • Built the debate programme from scratch; coached NSDA district champions and Model UN. NSDA Taiwan Coach of the Year 2018.

Middle School Teacher

2011–2013

Menno Simons Community School, Cleardale, Alberta

A remote, rural, low-income community in northern Alberta.

  • Taught eight courses across grades 6–9.
  • Led a professional learning community on self-regulated learning.
  • Edwin Parr Teacher Award — nominated by the school and won at the school-division level (Peace River School Division #10), recognized as one of Alberta’s five best first-year teachers.

ESL Teacher & Outdoor Learning Facilitator

Summers 2009–2012

Camp Wynchemna, Calgary

Summer ESL and outdoor education for international youth, overlapping the M.Ed.

  • Taught communicative ESL and critical-thinking lessons for international youth.
  • Led outdoor experiential programmes, including expeditions in the Rockies.

Assistant Language Teacher

2005–2008

JET Programme, Miki-shi, Japan

Government exchange programme placing language teachers in Japanese public schools.

  • Taught English across 11 schools in Miki-shi, Hyogo.
  • Supported ESL for special-education students.
  • Ran professional development workshops for elementary teachers.

Tutor

2003–2005 · 2008–2009

Pathways to Education, Regent Park, Toronto

Community education programme in Toronto’s Regent Park, begun during the Hon. B.A.

  • Tutored young people in Toronto’s Regent Park — where teaching first felt real.

Education & credentials

Ontario Certified Teacher · ESL Part 1 · Special Education Part 1 · IB DP History Cat. 1 · ISTE/ASCD Instructional Leader Certification (Building Level)

Selected professional learning

Recognition & talks