Gibbons plans to teach in China

LONDON, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- A British woman jailed after her students in Sudan nicknamed a teddy bear Mohamed said she plans to continue teaching abroad -- this time in China.

Gillian Gibbons, who was released early from her 15-day jail sentence after two British Muslim

colleagues intervened, said she now plans to take up teaching in China, The Times of London reported Tuesday.

"I've been to China on holiday before and loved it," Gibbons told Hello! magazine. "Besides which, I know I'm the most notorious teacher in the world at the moment, but I'm hoping that perhaps no one has heard of me there. I'm driven to follow my dream of teaching abroad again."

Gibbons said she hopes her teddy bear -- which she renamed "Barnaby" -- will be less controversial in China than it was in Sudan.

"It's just a standard geography tool. He travels to different places that the children can learn about. The children take him home and write about him in a book. These bears are completely innocent; they're just make-believe classmates for the children," she said.