Name: David Vawter
Title: Teaching Fellows Programming Coordinator, Associate Professor - Middle Level, Social
Studies
Education: Ph.D., University of Virginia; M.Ed., University of North Carolina-Charlotte; B.S.,
Oregon State University
Office: 312 Withers/W.T.S. Building
Phone: 803/323-2505
E-mail: vawterd@winthrop.edu
Web:
Area(s): teaching education; block scheduling; middle schools; brain compatible teaching;
differentiation; classroom management and instructional strategies
Dr. David H. Vawter has spent over 35 years in secondary schools, nine years in a local high school, and 25 years at Winthrop, including one internship in administration and 17 seasons as a head coach. He then coached for six more years at Springfield Middle School. His enthusiasm for classroom teaching, teacher preparation, and helping experienced teachers improve has never declined. He has given over 850 presentations and training sessions in over 47 states and provinces. He has published works on block scheduling, differentiation, ESL, brain compatible instruction, social-emotional learning, and working with students in a post-pandemic world. He has served for three years as president of the South Carolina Professors of Middle Level Education. He trains experienced teachers and teacher candidates to work with students of poverty. He has served as a Winthrop Faculty in Residence for two years where he spent one day a week in Sullivan Middle School. He considers his role as the Teaching Fellows Program Coordinator as the “dessert” at the end of a long career in teacher education. For fun, he plays pickleball and would love to spend more time working on his golf game. He teaches adult bible study at a local church. He is married to a nationally recognized middle school science teacher. While his son is an environmental engineer, his daughter followed the family tradition and became a teacher. Dr. Vawter loves spending time with his family which includes the family dog, a corgi-golden mix. But all this pales in comparison to spending time with his two young grandsons and a granddaughter soon to be born.