There's a nationwide shortage of minority, male and bilingual public school teachers. Baltimore County is among the school systems looking for ways to reverse the trend. Baltimore County wants to get the word out that it wants a more diverse teaching force. The district will spend the next few weeks making good on that pledge.Brendan Penn is Baltimore County's teacher of the year. The Lyons Mill Elementary School fourth grade educator is also a school system ambassador who wants to help the district recruit and hire more male, minority and bilingual teachers."My job, my goal is to inspire students and be an example of a positive role model, education, good leadership, so that's really what I'm trying to show kids, and we need more of an example of that in the classroom, for sure," said Penn. Baltimore County listed the numbers it is trying to improve: Its teaching workforce is 25% minority, compared to a minority student population of 63%. The county's teachers union says it's not surprised by the numbers."I don't know of a school system where these issues are not a problem. Teachers are just not coming into the profession because it is so hard," said Abby Beytin, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County. The concern in the classroom is what's driving the effort to create a more diverse teaching staff. In recent years, teacher recruitment has started as early as middle and high school."We want to have a workforce where every one of our students can have an educator and educators to look up to," said Brandon Oland, of Baltimore County Public Schools. Baltimore County's diversity teacher job fair will take place April 29. You can sign up now. To learn more, click here.