Career and Technical Education Month, which we celebrate each February, is a time for career and technical education teachers to step back and reflect on the work we do.

Whatever you teach — automotive repair, culinary arts, computer science or any other specialty area — I want to thank you for the difference you make in your students’ lives. For many of them, your classes are the key to keeping them engaged; it’s the hands-on experiences you provide that keep them interested in all aspects of school, including academic subjects. Without you, we risk many of them falling through the cracks.

But while we have much to celebrate, we also face a major challenge: seeing our role in a broader way. “Vocational’’ education is a thing of the past. Career and technical education goes hand-in-hand with academic subjects. We don’t impart only practical skills and knowledge; we also teach math, science, English and the social sciences as we prepare our students for careers.

Charles Wang, who teaches audio engineering and is the director of the music production program at Bayside HS in Queens, said he wants his students to see and understand the complexity of the music industry.

“We want to provide the students with what is relevant today, what they see on TV; not just the performance side but what goes on in the background — recording music, editing music. So they can say, ‘Now I understand how much work it takes to put together one three-minute song,’ what those jobs are and what they have to do to make things happen.’’

In many schools, career and technical educators and academic teachers remain in separate silos. Often we don’t know what our colleagues are teaching in academic classes and they don’t know about the work we do.

David Schwartz is a product of career and technical education in the finance field. He’s now a career and technical education teacher at Tottenville HS on Staten Island — in culinary arts.

“What we are realizing in working together is that a lot of the skills we are giving to students are things already embedded in other subjects.” Teaching measurements is math, he says, and when we teach students to be food critics, we are also teaching them reading and writing.

“Skills I learned in finance definitely set me up for going to culinary school,’’ he said.

Imagine what we could achieve if we were all in constant dialogue. Sometimes we think collaboration is only relevant among math and science teachers or among career and technical educators in fields like electronics or computer science. But there are countless other opportunities.

An automotive teacher might work with English and history teachers on lessons about the transition from horses to horsepower, while aviation and history teachers might plan joint lessons on the Wright brothers.

“I call it digital learning culture,’’ says Jon Mannion, a teacher at the Bronx Academy of Software Engineering. “We’re talking about collaboration, communication, creativity. All the behavioral skills we like to be around.”

In some schools, inter-visitation fosters that collaborative work. Academic teachers and career and technical educators visit each other’s classrooms to see how they can reinforce each other. I hope more schools will adopt this approach. After all, our goal is not only to provide students with an education but to prepare them for life.

Jeffrey Pedersen, a software engineering teacher at Ralph McKee HS on Staten Island, understands that.

“I’ve always felt my role as a teacher is to prepare my students for their life after high school, after college,” he said. “I need them to be better people and better citizens, as well as somebody who is proficient in their shop area.”