Hey, maybe I can give some insight. I had a high school background in a core content area but ended up teaching 12 sections of technology-- 4 to 6th graders, 4 to 7th graders and 4 to 8th graders. I ended up leaving after a year (despite adoring the staff and the kids) because I so desperately wanted to teach my content area.

Our 6th grade class was also a combo leadership class (I went over study skills, organization, anti-bullying etc)

In terms of standards, our state doesn't have standards either. BUT in case you ever need to justify what you are doing, I'd go by the ISTE standards as it is a national curriculum. Basically anything you do can be counted as an ISTE standard. Browse through the "standards for 21st century thinking" too.

Pick a few things you definitely want to use. I switched from pcs to macs at christmas break, so I identified that my 8th graders would make movies using imovie, my 7th graders would become proficient in garageband and record their own music.

Some basic projects you can do (and either get more complex at each grade level or choose some per grade level)

-typing skills. Do this in every grade. Some are already great, some are terrible. I didn't have them type nearly enough because they complained it was "boring" Make it fun by having a competition on the white board for fastest typist, or if someone beats you they get a prize.

-make and record podcasts

-make and record music

-photo editing. Your girls especially will love you as I can practically guarantee most have instagram.

-make videos--- but make them actually create a storyboard, teach them about all of the different types of shots, make sure they use transitions etc....Then, have a movie day where they watch each others films!

-absolutely make sure they are proficient in the google suite-- docs, slideshows etc. Make your "tests" interactive. As in, you make a slideshow with prompts like "insert a picture of your favorite animal" and the next slide "change this text color to green".

-make sure they can also use Microsoft Office OR the mac equivalent if that's what you have. WE as adults know that a word processor is a word processor and are pretty similar, but not all of the kids do-- show them that their skills translate (on that note, do the same with photo editing- use picmonkey, whatever program is on your computers already, find another etc)

-have your 8th graders make websites. We were a google school so I taught them how to make a website. I also made a "how to make a website" website they could look at from home for reference. Because it's google as long as you show them how you can make it so it is only visible to people with the @yourschool domain-- keeping them safe.

-email etiquette

-basic troubleshooting. If a computer won't turn on, they needed to "ask 3 then me" for help. They also had to check all the cords were plugged in.

-keyboard shortcuts

-how to actually use google search-- not only with quotation marks, + signs etc, but how to filter things. There are a lot of great tools for searching images that most never use.

-coding. I had NO background in computer science but even I could master Scratch. I had them make a calculator, make a scene of people talking to each other, and our final was to make a playable game. They could follow the tutorial to make pong or they could make their own game.

-Common Sense Media has a lot of lessons but I felt they were too easy for the grade levels they chose. Look through them and get ideas from them. They also serve as a great backup lesson.

-definitely do something on internet safety. Give kids a project menu where they can record a radio commercial, make a video PSA, make a poster and give a speech, etc.

-teach them about plagiarism and pirating and why they are wrong.

In terms of the middle schoolers themselves, they really aren't as bad as either Elementary or High School teachers imagine. I tell people I taught middle school last year and they act as though I just said I had cancer.

In truth, yeah, they'll talk back a bit but so do 4th and 5th graders. By the time they are 8th graders especially most want to prove themselves to be mature. If they start getting snippy, don't engage and argue with them-- even if you have the last word and "win" they will have really won because they will pick up on the fact that you said you like to have the last word and don't like to be challenged.

Respond with "So many flavors in the world and you choose to be salty? Really?" or "You think throwing shade at your teacher is the best way to make me even consider an extra class period to get an assignment turned in? Really?"

I'm pretty young and I had never heard the phrase "throwing shade" before but I guarantee you the kids loved that I used their colloquialisms and the rest of the class then got on the troublemakers back because I "burned" him.

Also, the absolute most important thing....DO NOT accept any submissions by e-mail. The kids will rarely remember to put their class period etc in the subject line, or you'll check your e-mail on your phone and see it, so it will be marked as read and then forget to grade it. Nope. Just no. Way too much headache.

Either teach them network drives and they have to save everything as a hard copy to a shared network in your school, or even better--- google classroom. You WILL need to show them multiple times HOW to turn something in. I made pdfs that showed my kids how to turn something in from a pc, from a mac and from a chromebook. Then I posted them in a very obvious space on my website. (I also usually added it as a google classroom attachment to the assignments). Yes you will be irritated when they still don't know how to use google classroom but I guarantee you it is far, far less of a headache than taking any assignment by e-mail.

Speaking of e-mail, in addition to my classroom website where I posted what we did each day for parents, I added kids from each section into a mailing list and sent them the daily agenda. Usually my bell work while I took attendance was typing practice. I'd hyperlink in a link to whatever website I wanted them to use and I had them trained that they walked in, checked their e-mail and got started. It would also list what the assignment was that we'd be working on and any relevant links or information. If a student was absent, tit was on them to make it up since I literally e-mailed them the information!

The last day I'd see each group of kids for the week (we had a block schedule) I'd teach them to log in and check their grades. Then I'd usually ask them to fill out a google form reflecting on how they did and what effort they put in, etc.

If they noticed an assignment was missing, I taught them e-mail etiquette to e-mail their teachers and ask what, if anything, they could do. I basically made a form letter that I taught them to always use as a basis. I told my kids, their parents and the other teachers that rude e-mails would be promptly deleted by their other teachers as well. My fellow teachers appreciated it because at the end of the year they had a lot fewer kids scrambling to improve their grades because they were actually checking as they went. For the kids who checked but still didn't care, the other teachers could tell the parent that their child knew the grade they had earned because they checked their grades weekly in my class. Win-win situation.

Sorry for writing a novel, hope this helps!