May be you can useful from the following article

Run the reaction in toluene with a dean stark apparatus.

you can just mixing your reactants (aldehyde and amine) with molecular sieves .this will give you your Imine.

magnesium sulfate also works

Use a Dean Stark it shifts the equilibrium of the reaction  to right favouring formatation of the imine.

If your final product is solid its better not to remove water, because organic compound not soluble in water ultimately your product precipitated out as water molecule increase in reaction mixture and your separation of the product is easier otherwise best to use Dean Stark apparatus  for water removal.

Mix aldehyde and amine in ratio 1:1

1) Toluene as a solvent with Dean-Stark apparatus to remove water

2) Reaction at room temperature in DCM in presence of activated molecular sieves or freshly dried Na2SO4

May be you can useful from the following article